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COPYRIGHT 
1917 BY 
THE) PENN 
PUBLISHING 
C OMPANY 




SEP -7 1917 


The Girl Beautiful 



CONTENTS 

CHAPTER PAGE 

I Lady Plain Face.1 

II Enter — The Princess.7 

III Food eor Thought.15 

IV The Beauty Within.24 

Y The Poise.33 

VI The Pivotal Points.42 

VII Position in Sitting.51 

VIII The Face Like a Rose Leaf ... 59 

IX Perfect Complexions.68 

X About Food.77 

XI Flat Feet.86 

XII The Unruly Member.95 

XIII Restless Hands.103 

XIV Beautiful Nails.112 

XV Fearless Eyes.120 

XVI Eyes and No Eyes.129 

XVII Growing Beautiful.139 

XVIII Hats and Hair . . . ... . 146 

XIX A Woman’s Glory.157 

XX Hair Dressing.167 



















CONTENTS 


CHAPTER PAGE 

XXI Manners. 176 

XXII Beauty Within. 185 

XXIII Baths and Colds. 193 

XXIY Little Things that Count .... 200 

XXY Handsome Lines. 207 

XXVI The Girl Beautiful . . . . . . 215 







THE GIRL BEAUTIFUL 


CHAPTER I 

LADY PLAIN FACE 

T HE living-room was in the twilight of 
an early afternoon. The lights had 
not yet been turned on, but a grate fire sent 
a glow over the room, with here and there 
shadows lying dark in the background. A 
woman sat in an easy chair before the fire. 
She might have been forty — or ten years 
more. It was a matter difficult to judge. 
Her hair had at one time been yellow as 
gold, but now it was streaked with darker 
shades and also with strands of gray. 

Her face had a faded look. Her eyes 
were dull. Her chin had a double curve to 
it, and her neck, displayed by her flaring 
collar, was so fat that it lay in creases. 
Yet there remained so much of the sugges¬ 
tion of beauty, that any one meeting her 
1 


2 


THE GIRL BEAUTIFUL 


would be inclined to say, “ She must have 
been a beauty when she was young/ 7 —yet 
now, she had really but entered the forties. 

She held in her hand an open note which 
she had been reading in the fading light. 
A second envelope with a handsomely en¬ 
graved reception card had fallen from her 
lap and lay on the rug at her feet. 

Her expression was that of a woman sur¬ 
prised, amused and uncertain. 

“ I wish Mabel would come. She’ll be so 
surprised when I tell her of this. Though 
I suppose she has received the same sort of 
letter. 77 

She rose and walked to the window. 
Just at that instant the door of the room 
was opened, and a caller entered. She was 
above the usual height, very slender, with 
depressed chest, and head carried forward. 
She too was a woman whom forty years had 
touched. She wore a bright blue broad¬ 
cloth suit, a big hat gay and heavy with 
plumes. 

“ I 7 m glad I found you at home, Laura. 
You’re such a woman to be anywhere but 
home,” was her greeting. Her voice was 
unpleasant in its tones. One unconsciously 


LADY PLAIN FACE 


3 


shrank back at the sound of it as though it 
were a blow in the face. 

“ Yes, so am I, Mabel. I have the most 
wonderful thing to tell you, but perhaps 
you have received the same sort of letter? ” 

“ I haven’t been home since noon. I don’t 
know what came in this evening’s mail. 
Tell me. I’m fairly bursting with curios¬ 
ity.” If she had said withering up with 
curiosity, it would have seemed more to the 
purpose. She seated herself by the grate. 
Mrs. Harmon turned on the lights full blast 
and then sat down beside her friend. 

a Do you remember Jane Harter?” she 
asked. 

“Jane Harter!” A puzzled look came 
over Mrs. Copeler’s face. “ The name seems 
familiar enough, but —” 

“ Yes, you do remember her. She went 
to school with us from the primary grade 
and —” 

“ — and graduated in the same class from 
the High School. To be sure! How on 
earth could I forget her. She was such a 
homely little thing.” 

“ She was certainly not beautiful,” said 
Laura reflectively. She remembered how 


4 


THE GIRL BEAUTIFUL 


she herself had been called the Beauty in 
the school. A picture came to her mind as 
she sat there before the grate in the gray 
twilight. It was that of Jane Harter of the 
old school days, a thin, awkward and most 
unattractive girl; self conscious and shy. 

“Why did you bring up the name now? 
What has brought her to your mind? ” 

“ This! ” She waved the letter. “ Judge 
Haller and his wife are giving a reception 
in her honor. They met her off somewhere 
on one of their trips and have fallen in love 
with her. She’s visiting now at the Hallers’ 
home. From what I gleaned between lines, 
she’s interested in some public work. The 
invitation is from the Hallers. Jane has 
written me a little personal note, reminding 
me of our school days, and hoping that I 
will be able to be present Thursday eve¬ 
ning.” 

“ I suppose she’s sent me one too,” said 
Mrs. Copeler. “You’ll go, of course?” she 
asked, turning to her friend. 

“Yes, I’ll go, to be sure, although I do 
not know that meeting Jane again will be 
any pleasure. I scarcely knew her when 
we went to school. The Hallers are always 


LADY PLAIN FACE 


5 


interesting, and one enjoys going there.” 

“ I’d go, of course, out of courtesy to the 
Judge and Mrs. Haller. I confess too that 
I am curious to see Jane Harter. I won¬ 
der what sort of public work she is in? ” 

“ I haven’t the faintest idea,” was the re¬ 
sponse. 

There was silence for a few moments. 
The thoughts of each woman were back in 
the past. The one was thinking with some 
pride of the time when she had been called 
“ The Beauty,” and yet regret was with her, 
for her beauty and her youth were in the 
past. She was now a dull commonplace 
woman whose wealth had given her service 
which had made little or no effort on her 
part necessary, and as a result she had 
grown plethoric and commonplace. 

The other too had her mind on the school 
days. She never could boast of being beau¬ 
tiful, but she had possessed the rare charm 
of grace and attractiveness. She had had 
the reputation for being witty and her 
bright sayings had been passed from mouth 
to mouth. 

But she too had the sadness of regret in 
her thoughts. The past had been so much 


6 


THE GIEL BEAtJTIFUL 


finer than the present. The wit of her 
tongue had turned to sarcasm now. Her 
desire to be the leader, to give full rein to 
her attractiveness had made her selfish, 
vain, and bitter toward any who laid claim 
to these things. 

She realized that the girlish attractive¬ 
ness had diminished with years, but she did 
not grasp the full meaning of its entire dis¬ 
appearance. 

“ Yes, Fll go/’ she said suddenly. Again 
both fell back into a reflective mood. Those 
old school days twenty years before had 
been so filled with good things for them, 
youth, beauty, humor, attractiveness. Na¬ 
ture had endowed them both. Now, in look¬ 
ing back, each felt a regret which she would 
not confess even to herself. Back in each 
mind lay a question which was not permitted 
to come to the surface — did the results of 
forty justify the endowments of sixteen? 


CHAPTER II 


ENTER — THE PRINCESS 

I T was very late when Mrs. Harmon and 
her friend, Mrs. Copeler, appeared at 
the reception. The latter had arrayed her¬ 
self in a bright satin with a long train and 
devoid of sleeves and very low in the neck. 
Her arms were thin, her chest sunken, and 
her throat showed the tense cords at the 
side. As far as possible she affected the 
youthful. The colors and the styles which 
had been becoming to her in her girlhood 
she clung to with an almost frenzied tenac¬ 
ity. She wanted to keep her freshness and 
believed that she was doing it when she 
clung to youthful colors and styles; they 
but accentuated her deficiencies. There 
was something almost pitiful in her appear¬ 
ance as she entered the reception rooms. 

The Haller mansion was filled with 
guests. Mrs. Copeler and Mrs. Harmon no¬ 
ticed that people of the highest standing, 
7 


8 


THE GIRL BEAUTIFUL 


many of whom they had heard, but never 
met, were there. Here was a composer, 
there a prominent lecturer, or the world¬ 
wide known author or artist. 

“ So many out of town,” whispered Mabel 
to Laura. 

“ And the reception in honor of Jane 
Harter. I cannot understand,” Laura whis¬ 
pered back. 

“ Nor I,” remarked Mabel. 

The two old schoolmates of Jane Harter 
were so late that the reception line had been 
long since broken up and the guests were all 
about the house. As the two women came 
to the foot of the stair, Judge Haller came 
to meet them. 

“ Have you met Jane?” he asked. “I 
shall see that you meet her at once.” 

“ How kind,” murmured Laura. “ I 
think I should recognize her at once,” said 
Mabel. 

“ Perhaps,” was the response. “ I did 
not know her until half a dozen years ago, 
so I cannot tell if she looks as she did when 
a young girl.” 

“ She was thin,” said Mabel. 


ENTER — THE PRINCESS 


9 


“ She’s tall and slender yet,” said Judge 
Haller. The three moved across the hall 
and into a large drawing room. Here they % 
paused to shake hands with several distin¬ 
guished men. Neither Mabel nor Laura 
was in a hurry to move forward. It was 
delightful to look about the beautiful home 
and upon the handsome men and women. 

“ In what work is Jane interested? ” 
asked Laura. “ We have lost track of her 
since our school days. She’s interested in 
public works? ” 

“ She’s an artist,” said Judge Haller. 

“ One of the finest in the world.” 

“ Indeed.” Mabel had no desire to meet 
Jane and be in ignorance of her work. 

“ What is her style — landscape? ” 

One of the men laughed softly. “ There 
are all sorts of artists, Mrs. Copeler. The 
Judge did not mean to say that Jane was a 
painter of pictures. She is an artist in that 
she has given more beauty to the world. 
Therefore, she’s a benefactor. Isn’t it Vic¬ 
tor Hugo’s old priest who says, ‘ Beauty is 
as useful as the most useful thing and per¬ 
haps more so ’? ” 


10 


THE GIRL BEAUTIFUL 


Mabel had to confess that she did not 
know what Hugo’s priest had said of 
Beauty. 

“ I’ve forgotten all the Hugo I ever knew; 
but let us hope that Jane’s efforts began 
where they say charity should.” 

“ At home,” said her companion. “ That 
is where she did begin. She went to school 
to herself and took her doctor’s degree in 
making the most of her schooling.” Then 
he added in a different tone, “ I knew her 
just after she left the public school. I have 
watched her work. I have seen her advanc¬ 
ing step by step. No, I cannot say it was 
in just that way. Sometimes it seemed to 
me that she was more like a person scal¬ 
ing a wall by digging a foothold and a fin¬ 
gerhold for each inch she advanced. But, 
she never faltered, never looked back, and so 
at last reached the highest pinnacle of suc¬ 
cess.” 

“ But tell me truly, what is her particular 
work? ” said Laura. 

“ Truly, she is an artist,” said the gentle¬ 
man. 

“ But really, what sort of artistic work 
does she do? ” insisted Mabel. 


ENTER — THE PRINCESS 


11 


“ Really, she makes the world beautiful / 7 
he replied. 

“ How does she set about doing it ? 77 
asked Mabel, feeling confident that this 
question must bring out the information she 
desired. 

“ She does it in much the same way that 
nature takes a few fragrant dainty apple 
blossoms, and by keeping them free from 
frosts and from insects, and by giving them 
just enough rain and enough sunshine trans¬ 
forms them into luscious apples,— round, 
juicy, re-tinted and fragrant. She takes 
possibilities and makes them realities . 77 

“ Sometimes the apple blossoms are 
blasted or the scale destroys the whole 
crop , 77 said Mabel. 

“ Yes, and it is much to be regretted , 77 
was the reply. “ Jane 7 s great work is to 
stop such devastation. She does all that 
can be done to keep the blossom from being 
blasted, and to bring the fruit to the perfec¬ 
tion that nature permits and desires . 77 

“ She 7 s been a landscape gardener, or per¬ 
haps a worker for the betterment of civic 
conditions , 77 said Mabel. 

“ She is both and yet — neither / 7 was the 


12 


THE GIRL BEAUTIFUL 


response. “ Jane’s work is with human 
lives. But, I am here talking of her, when 
you would much prefer to talk with her. 
If you will excuse me, and await for me 
here, I shall seek her out, and bring her to 
you.” 

“ You are very kind,” murmured Laura. 

“ I’ve been looking at the women in this 
room and the next,” said Laura. “ I can 
see almost every one that is here, but I have 
not seen Jane. I’d know her the moment 
I’d see her.” 

“ Of course you would, Laura.” 

“ There’s a fine looking woman over 
there,” said Mabel. “ See — she’s standing 
just so we get the side view. She looks like 
a princess. Black velvet and pearls. I’ve 
always wanted to wear such a dress. I’m 
going to when I get too old for colors, but 
I will not wear them now.” 

“ She looks young — far younger than we 
do. How simply her hair is done up. Just 
one pink rose. Just color enough. I won¬ 
der who she is. She moves like a queen. 
She’s standing there with all eyes upon her, 
yet she seems unconscious that any one is 
looking at her.” 


ENTER — THE PRINCESS 13 


“ I wish. I had her poise,” said Mabel. It 
was the first time in her life that she had 
confessed to any one, even herself, that any 
one existed who had charms which she had 
not, 

“ She is certainly beautiful,” said Laura. 
“ Eve read of necks like swans, but I never 
saw one before.” 

“ I wonder who she is. Some famous 
beauty,” said Mabel, turning around. 
“ Hush, she’s looking right at us,” whis¬ 
pered Laura, as Mabel was about to % speak. 

The woman had turned and let her eyes 
wander over the room. Her glance was 
clear and steady. She was not bold, neither 
was she diffident. Her mind seemed so 
filled with matters outside of self that it was 
impossible for her to be self-conscious. 

Suddenly her glance fell upon the two 
women who stood staring at her from their 
corner. She looked at them a moment. 
Then her eyes lighted up. A smile of recog¬ 
nition came to her face. She moved toward 
them. When she came near she held out 
both hands. “ I was afraid that you would 
not come,” she said, “ Mabel and Laura! 
How pleasant it is to see you again.” Then 


14 


THE GIRL BEAUTIFUL 


becoming conscious of their startled, sur¬ 
prised look, she added, “ Surely you remem¬ 
ber me,— Jane Harter.” 

“Jane!” they exclaimed. Then Mabel, 
entirely carried away by the beauty of the 
stately gracious woman who stood before 
her, cried out, “ But you are perfectly beau¬ 
tiful.” 

“ Yes,” she said quite unaffectedly. “ It’s 
a woman’s obligation to the world. You 
know great philosophers are telling us 
that it is a woman’s fault if she is not beau¬ 
tiful by the time she is forty and,” she 
added with a smile, “ I am forty-five.” 


CHAPTER III 


FOOD FOR THOUGHT 

U TPS a woman’s own fault if she is not 
X beautiful by the time she is forty.” 
That thought fixed itself in Mrs. Harmon’s 
mind. It was not a pleasant thought, yet 
it clung to her with awful persistency. 

When she reached home, she studied her¬ 
self in her mirror. Every line of beauty was 
gone. Her walk was a mere waddle. “ I 
look like a fat goose ready for market,” she 
told herself. Tears were in her eyes. Jane 
Harter was forty-five. Older than Mrs. 
Harmon, and yet Jane looked — Mrs. Har¬ 
man paused when she tried to fix a year 
limit to Jane’s looks. The queer part was 
that she could not connect Jane with years 
at all. She had found and kept the best 
from each and all years. No one thought of 
age in connection with her any more than 
one thought of it when looking at a perfect 
rose. 


15 


16 


THE GIRL BEAUTIFUL 


“Her own fault” That thought kept 
ringing in Mrs. Harmon’s mind. She was 
a sluggard in mind and body. “ I’ve taken 
life too easily,” she told herself. “ I’ll be¬ 
gin to-morrow and live differently.” Yet 
even as she spoke she knew that she would 
not. It is only she who is trained in over¬ 
coming who can do such strenuous things as 
break a life-time habit when middle-age is 
close upon her. 

Jane Harter took up her residence in 
town. She was the admiration of all the 
young women and girls. She realized her 
power, but thought no more of it than a 
skilled physician does of his skill — a power 
to be used for the benefit of others. All 
personal element was wanting in it. 

It was not long until she became the friend 
of all the girls and young women. Her lawn 
was filled during the summer afternoons, 
and at evenings there were always some 
girls sitting on her porch to listen to her 
conversation. Her voice was as beautiful 
as her face and form. Her conversation 
held and charmed. Her talk was of big 
things. Sometimes, it was on subjects of 
development of character or what a girl 


FOOD FOR THOUGHT 


17 


owes to herself, or how far a girl is re¬ 
sponsible for her appearance. 

One night, Bertha Traynn sat lolling in 
her chair. When she listened, she generally 
let her jaw fall so that her mouth hung open. 
It gave her a particularly dull vacant ex¬ 
pression. Bertha rarely thought before she 
spoke. Generally she blurted outright and 
thought afterward. “ I’d like to be as good 
looking and have as nice manners as you, 
Miss Jane,” she suddenly blurted out. 

“Why are you not as handsome, then, 
and why do you not have as good a man¬ 
ner?” asked Jane quietly. 

“ I couldn’t be. You can be sure if I 
could be, I’d be it in a minute.” 

There was just a moment of silence. 
Then Jane spoke. Her voice was low, well- 
modulated, and yet she enunciated so clearly 
that her hearers had no difficulty in hearing 
her. “ Bertha, I should like to tell you that 
you are wrong. You state things as you see 
them, but unfortunately you do not see them 
as they are.” 

Bertha’s jaw fell. Her mouth flew open. 
She was lolling so in her chair that all her 
weight rested on the small of her back. 


18 


THE GIRL BEAUTIFUL 


“ Miss Jane, do you think I could become 
beautiful? ” she asked. 

“ I do not think it. I know it,” was the 
reply. 

“ Like you?” cried Bertha, with a great 
show of interest, 

“ Not like me. The finest beauty in the 
world is the individual. You might become 
something finer than I. You might have an 
attraction, a power which was individually 
yours — like no one else in the world. You 
do not suspect your own possibilities.” 

“ If I have possibilities, why are they not 
realities?” asked Bertha. The girls leaned 
forward. Bertha and Miss Jane were the 
only ones who were taking part in the con¬ 
versation, but it held a vital interest to all. 

“ I know why,” said Miss Jane, “but if I 
should tell you you would become offended 
with me. That same sensitiveness, or shall 
we call it egoism, which makes you flinch 
at the slightest adverse criticism, is one of 
the things which holds you back from being 
attractive and good in manner.” 

“ Please tell me, Miss Jane. I’ll try not 
to be offended, and if I am I’ll promise not 
to show it.” 


FOOD FOR THOUGHT 


19 


“ It will hurt, yet I should not hesitate,” 
said Miss Jane, “ to make the world more 
beautiful by making girls and women beau¬ 
tiful,—Jo keep intact what beauty exists, 
and to develop what lies dormant is my 
work in life. I should not hesitate to do my 
work even though it cut deep into the flesh 
of those whom I would help. If you had a 
malignant growth on your face, the surgeon 
would cut it away with one thought in 
his mind; he was helping you; he was 
making you better. He would not give a 
thought to the fact that he had caused you 
pain. 

“ I try to put myself in the place of the 
surgeon. Fm cutting away ugly growths 
in manners, in motion, in habits of mind and 
body. I hurt, but what does it matter if 
my works bring forth a more nearly perfect 
specimen of humanity.” 

“ Why, indeed,” said Grace. 

“ I shall not mind. Tell me the reasons 
that I am not all in mind, manner and 
looks that a girl wishes to be.” 

“ I will tell you. What is true of you in 
this instance is true of all girls and all 
women w T ho have not achieved the best of 


20 


THE GIRL BEAUTIFUL 


which they are capable; who have not made 
their possibilities realities. 

“ These are the reasons; yon lack the con¬ 
ception of beauty. There is in your mind 
no ideal of what is beautiful. That is the 
first great lack. The second is that you ac¬ 
tually lack the desire to be beautiful and 
fine. The impulse has come to you at in¬ 
tervals that you would like to have the 
physique and carriage of a Greek goddess, 
and the face of a Madonna. But it is not a 
desire which is part of you. It is but an 
impulse, sweeping over you for a time and 
then leaving you for a longer period. The 
third reason,— I almost hesitate to tell you 
— is that you are lazy.” 

All the while Miss Jane had been talking, 
Bertha had sat with her mouth open, loll¬ 
ing in her chair, her feet far apart. She 
fairly gasped for breath. This statement 
was really astonishing, for Bertha had a 
reputation for being energetic. 

“ All this may sound very harsh,” con¬ 
tinued Miss Jane, “ but if you will study 
yourself you will see that it is true not of 
one, but of all. Add to all these shortcom¬ 
ings which I have mentioned there is that 


FOOD FOR THOUGHT 


21 


of being supersensitive. You squirm when 
any one criticizes you. You throw the crit¬ 
icism aside and seek to justify yourself with 
the assurance that it is unjust and untrue. 
No one of you will sit down and deliberately 
study yourself to see wherein you fail.” 

Miss Jane smiled and added, “ When you 
bake a cake you’ll taste and test and if it 
does not come up to the standard you will 
study to find out what it lacks. The next 
time you bake a similar cake, you will make 
it right. 

“ Taking us all in all, we’re a very pecu¬ 
liar people. We’ll spend time and mind on 
matters which are not really important, 
while the biggest thing in the world,— self¬ 
development, we let pass by with little or no 
thought. 

“ We have the same mental attitude as 
the Dutch house wife that Irving writes of.. 
She declares that ducks and geese are queer 
things and need looking after, but girls can 
take care of themselves.” 

The girls had little to say to this. There 
was silence for a few minutes after Miss 
Jane had spoken. Then Carrie expressed 
herself, “ I think you are right in what you 


22 


THE GIRL BEAUTIFUL 


say, Miss Jane. WeTl acknowledge all 
these short comings; TO speak for all the 
girls. That’s the first step, is it not? — to 
acknowledge the lack? Now, Miss Jane, 
will you help us to make it right? ” 

“ There must be a great deal in your 
method,” said May West. “ Some one told 
me that you were a very, very homely school 
girl, and now you are the most beautiful 
woman in the world. Will you help us?” 

“ That is my purpose — to bring the finest 
beauty into the lives of women and girls. 
The doses I give may be very bitter, yet if 
you promise to swallow them all without 
flinching —” 

“ Oh, do you give drugs? ” asked Bertha. 

“ No, I meant the bitter doses of criticism 
and advice,” explained Miss Jane. “ The 
beauty of Greek sculpture is that their hu¬ 
man figures express more than mere out¬ 
ward lines. Beneath the marble lay a soul, 
and a mind, and the sculpture expressed 
that. He who studies Greek figures forgets 
for the time that it is mere marble he is 
looking at. He feels that he has come in 
contact with a soul. We feel the serenity 
of mind, the anguish of soul, just as though 


FOOD FOR THOUGHT 


23 


the person and not the marble were there 
before us. In this, lies the first great prin¬ 
ciple of beauty.” 

Bertha looked up at Miss Jane. She 
could not fully grasp the significance of this 
expression. 

“ The finest beauty comes from within and 
finds outward expression,” said Miss Jane. 
“ I will talk of that again. But, now, you 
must decide if you wish me to help you to¬ 
ward beauty and charm, and if you are will¬ 
ing to do as I request you.” 

The girls gave their assent. As they sat 
there, they planned to bring into this club 
all the girls of the village. 

“ You will find that holding out a help¬ 
ful hand to others is one of the charms 
which every woman should covet,” said 
Miss Jane. 

As they rose to take their leave Carrie 
glanced at herself in the hall-mirror. 
“ Here’s one Lady Plain Face to begin with,” 
she said. 

“ At the end of the story, she will be the 
Princess Beautiful,” said Miss Jane. 


CHAPTER IV 


THE BEAUTY WITHIN 

U TF the source of a stream is polluted,” 

A said Miss Jane one day, “ the whole 
river and the bay into which it flows may 
be infected with the germs of disease. In 
order to purify we must begin at the source. 
In order to beautify we must begin at the 
very fountain-head of beauty — and that is 
the soul and the mind. 

“ In order to prove my point, let me ask 
you if you ever knew a deceitful treacherous 
person have a frank open countenance, and 
a clear steady eye. Whenever you meet a 
shifting glance, hang-dog expression, and 
drooping head, you may be sure that the per¬ 
son has something in his mind and soul of 
which he is ashamed. 

“ The man and woman who fears no one, 
who has no past to dread, who plans no dis¬ 
honest schemes for the future, has his head 

24 


THE BEAUTY WITHIN 


25 


high, his chest expanded, and his step is elas¬ 
tic and quick. 

“Watch these tendencies in yourself. 
Study the people about you. When you do 
something unselfish and fine, watch that 
your voice rings in the major key — how 
your chest expands and your head is lifted. 

“ Then in order to have buoyancy of spirit, 
clear steady expression of the eyes, and a 
confident step, watch the thoughts, guard 
the gates of the mind and soul that nothing 
low may creep in. 

“ And right here, girls, you must distin¬ 
guish between that which is ‘ low ’ and that 
which is ‘ lowly.’ The violet is a lowly 
flower, humble and unpretentious, but it is 
far from being low. 

“ You may think that as long as you 
do not put your thoughts in words they 
will remain hidden. Never was a greater 
mistake made. Words are but the feeblest 
expression of the individual. You cannot 
walk across the floor, you cannot greet a 
friend on the street, you cannot make a 
simple purchase in a store, without express¬ 
ing yourself, and showing something of your 
own individuality. 


26 


THE GIRL BEAUTIFUL 


“ You may deceive some people. You 
may be false and have some look upon you 
as true, for there are people who can not 
read print because they are ignorant of the 
essential; there are some people who can 
not recognize a discord in music, who can 
listen to a discord of horrible sounds with¬ 
out flinching; but we have no regard for the 
former’s criticism on literature, or the lat¬ 
ter’s judgment on music. It is the normal- 
minded set of people you must regard. 

“ It is an old saying and a true one that 
it is a woman’s own fault i*f she is not at¬ 
tractive by the time she is forty. When she 
has reached that age, her manner of living, 
her thoughts, her spiritual condition have re¬ 
acted on the body, and through the body she 
has expressed what she actually is and has 
been for forty years. 

“ No cheerful, kindly woman of forty ever 
had drooping lines about her mouth, a down¬ 
ward cast to her eye or a sharp, bitter ex¬ 
pression. The thing is impossible. The 
kettle shows marks of the fire, and the face 
shows marks of the life within. 

“ Not in the face alone does the life show, 
but in every movement of the body, even 


THE BEAUTY WITHIN 


27 


in the position the body takes when it is at 
rest. 

“ A famous actor who without words 
wished to portray great uneasiness of mind 
and nervousness did so by having his hands 
fumble about the papers on the desk. Dick¬ 
ens in his ‘ David Copperfield ’ had his 
subtle character show it by his method of 
rubbing his hands together. 

“ Claudius in ‘ Hamlet ’ is very smooth 
with words. It is ‘ his dear brother/ but his 
nervousness of movement shows a mind ill 
at ease.” 

“ Indeed, Miss Jane, you have given me 
a great deal' to think about,” said little 
Nellie Shepherd. She was a dainty sweet 
little creature who knew no guile. “ Now, 
since you have mentioned it, I remember 
that the few times when I have gossiped 
about people, I always felt nervous and un¬ 
easy when I met them again, although I’m 
sure that they never knew that I had talked 
even a little bit about them.” 

Every one smiled. Nellie was just a 
gentle little soul. One could not imagine 
her saying anything very bitter against an¬ 
other. 


28 


THE GIRL BEAUTIFUL 


“ And when you met these people of whom 
you gossiped you made an unusual effort 
to be agreeable and ingratiating. Did you 
not? ” asked Miss Jane. 

“ Yes, I did,” replied Nellie. 

“ Human nature asserting itself along 
the same lines,” said Miss Jane. u We are 
all pretty much the same regardless of the 
clime or times in which we live.” 

“ How can we have beautiful ideals — or 
the right conception of beauty?” asked 
Carrie. 

“ By being, as far as possible, with the 
beautiful,” was the reply. “ To cultivate 
the musical taste and ear we have the pupil 
hear only the finest music. We eradicate, 
as far as possible, all the cheap rattle-bang 
variety. After a time, the ear becomes so 
accustomed to perfect music that it recog¬ 
nizes and repudiates at once anything which 
does not come up to the standard. Culti¬ 
vating flowers adds beauty to life; hearing 
good music, reading fine books. We do not 
realize how much these things influence us. 
We are bound to let our thoughts dwell on 
the things with which we come in contact. 
‘ As a man thinks in his heart so he is. ? A 


THE BEAUTY WITHIN 29 

girl becomes like those things on which her 
mind dwells. 

“Have you ever sat and studied a Ma¬ 
donna — one of those perfect faces which 
the Italian artists loved to paint? It is im¬ 
possible, of course, for you to see the origi¬ 
nals, but you can have the little sepia copies 
which cost only a few cents. These pictures 
are beautiful, not alone for that age in which 
they were painted, but for all ages. The 
lines are perfect. Study the proportions. 
Ask yourself what makes it beautiful. 
Even if you do nothing more than let your 
eye rest upon it, and sit dreaming before 
it, beauty is being impressed upon your 
mind. 

“ Every beautiful thought leaves its im¬ 
press. You can not give way to a beautiful 
generous impress without the lines and ex¬ 
pression of your face being softened and 
refined. One thing should be remembered 
here in connection with thought. Psycholo¬ 
gists teach us that every generous or beauti¬ 
ful thought must be followed by action of 
some kind or the effect is lost. If it be only 
a kindly word to some child, a cheery smile 
to some tired passer by, the thought is ex- 


30 


THE GIRL BEAUTIFUL 


pressed in action and the effect on the char¬ 
acter is not lost.” 

“ It is such a big subject. I have already 
become discouraged at attempting it,” said 
Bertha. 

“ It is a big subject, and as I have already 
told you it will take grit and energy to ac¬ 
complish the desired end. But then every¬ 
thing that is worth while requires time. 
To-day I am generalizing. Perhaps I shall 
do the same in the next two talks. After 
that I shall take each little lady of you, show 
you where you lack in grace and beauty, 
in what way you are impairing your health 
and energy, and then show you the best way 
to overcome it.” 

The girls looked grave. It takes a strong 
character to sit and listen while she hears 
herself dissected, and then, after she is all 
torn to pieces, cheerfully build herself up 
along new lines. 

“ Before leaving this talk to-day, let me 
firmly impress these truths upon you. 
Beauty within finds its response in beauty 
found without. Like the marble which the 
sculptor declared held an angel which he 
must set free, you, too, may have that in 


THE BEAUTY WITHIN 


31 


mind and soul which it is your duty to set 
free, to give wings to. None of you dreams 
yet of her own possibilities. The best de¬ 
veloped of us are only part of what we 
really might have been. We all fall short 
of our best development. 

“ I am not giving to you an original idea. 
It is as old as the hills. I am trying merely 
to impress it upon you that you may put 
it into your own life. 

“ Let me tell a story which is said to be 
true. It may strengthen your faith in the 
idea that our living and thinking show in 
our bodies. An Italian painter, of the 
Middle Ages, was painting a picture of the 
Last Supper. For The Christ he found in 
Rome a youth with a beautiful open coun¬ 
tenance, clear eye, and expression of purity 
and innocence. The artist asked him to sit 
for him while he painted the Christ, and 
the youth did so. 

“ The picture was long in the finishing. 
At length, it was completed except the 
figure of Judas. The artist wished a face 
in which greed, avarice, selfishness were the 
strongest characteristics. He went from 
place to place seeking a face such as he 


32 


THE GIRL BEAUTIFUL 


desired. Twenty years after he had begun 
the picture, he found his Judas in a low 
quarter of an Italian city. 

“ The man was the embodiment of sub¬ 
tlety, avarice, greed. 

“ ‘ Will you sit while I catch your ex¬ 
pression?’ he asked. The man assented. 
An appointment was made for the following 
day. When the model came to the studio 
he gazed long at the picture of the Last 
Supper. 

“ ‘ I sat for “ The Christ ” for you — just 
twenty years ago.’ 

“‘And now for “Judas,”’ said the 
artist.” 

The story deeply impressed the listeners. 
What expression would be theirs after 
twenty years of life? It was a serious thing 
to consider. Silence fell upon them. 


CHAPTER V 
THE POISE 

< ‘ T 3 OISE is balance. Balance is a con- 
dition very much to be desired. It 
presupposes a harmony between all the 
parts. It is a term used of the intellect, 
and emotions as well as the body. To have 
poise is one of the finest possessions a girl 
or woman may have.” This was the begin¬ 
ning of the second talk which Miss Jane 
gave the girls. 

“ A well-poised mind is one not given to 
frenzies of emotion, passion or anger. It 
sees what is worth while, considers, judges 
and decides. It is capable of affection, sym¬ 
pathy. It can judge, and follow its own 
judgment. 

“ A well-poised body is one so evenly bal¬ 
anced in its movements, so nicely placed on 
the pivoted parts that there is harmony 
throughout.” 

It was a general talk. A few minutes 
33 


34 


THE GIRL BEAUTIFUL 


later when Margaret Larkens came into the 
room, Miss Jane took her in hand. Marga¬ 
ret was seventeen. She* was tall and slen¬ 
der. As far as features and coloring were 
concerned she had everything in her favor, 
yet no one ever thought of calling her pretty. 
Her appearance as a whole was decidedly 
otherwise. Her clothes were expensive, 
well-chosen and well-made; but she lacked 
style. One might call her a particularly 
awkward well dressed girl. 

There was no one else in the room but 
Miss Jane and Margaret. 

“ My dear,” began Miss Jane, “ this is one 
opportunity. You are the one who needs 
poise of body particularly. Come here and 
stand before my triple mirrors.” 

Margaret’s face flushed, but she was will¬ 
ing to take the dose if it would improve her. 
Miss Jane had triple mirrors, full length, 
before which one might stand and get a view 
on one’s self at all the different angles. 

Margaret obediently took the place Miss 
Jane designated. 

“ Stand just as you’ve been accustomed,” 
said Miss Jane, “and study yourself. Be 
the most severe critic that you can be.” 


THE POISE 


35 


Margaret studied herself. “ Study pro¬ 
file and general lines first,” said Miss Jane. 

This is the picture that met Margaret’s 
eyes. A slender figure — not straight as a 
sapling. The neck, which was thick and 
white, was thrust forward until her face was 
in a line directly above her own toes. Her 
shoulders were hunched forward so that her 
chest stood back several inches from the line 
drawn from front shoulder to front shoulder. 
This gave a curve in the back from shoulder 
to shoulder. Waists and jackets were 
bound to hang out of shape on such lines. 

Moreover, her abdomen was prominent 
and extended beyond her chest. Her waist 
line was higher in the front than in the 
back. 

“ This dress never did fit,” she said at 
last. 

“ Do not lay the blame on the dress. The 
fault is in yourself. Now, watch your re¬ 
flection while you throw your body into 
1 poise.’ Raise your head up as though you 
would like it to touch the ceiling. Do not 
raise your shoulders. Let them take care 
of themselves. Stretch out your neck — 
straight to the ceiling; raise your body from 


36 


THE GIRL BEAUTIFUL 


your waist and breathe while you are doing 
this — breathe deeply. Now, hold that po¬ 
sition while you look at your reflection.” 

The neck was slender and straight. The 
deep breathing had expanded the chest and 
had raised the breast-bone so that the shoul¬ 
ders were thrown back to their place. 
There was something else that the extended 
chest had done. The abdomen had been re¬ 
duced and the front waist line fallen. As 
she stood so, a straight rod placed beside 
her would have shown that ear, shoulder, 
elbow, wrist (for the arm was held straight 
down), hip and ankle-bone all lay in the 
same straight line. 

“ The dress fits now,” said Miss Jane. 

“Who would have thought that a little 
thing like that would have made such a 
difference,” said Margaret. 

“ It is not a little thing,” said Miss Jane. 
“ You will discover that before a day passes. 
It will require effort of will to make this 
position your natural one. At first, you 
will be constrained and stilted, but that will 
soon wear away, and your c poise ’ will be 
correct and easy.” 

Margaret surveyed herself in the glass. 


THE POISE 


37 


“ I looked like this,” she said, holding up 
a crooked finger, “ and now I look like this ” 
— and the line of the finger became beauti¬ 
fully straight. “ It certainly is wonderful 
what a change it makes in my appearance.” 

“ Yes, my dear,” said Miss Jane, “ a de¬ 
pressed chest may lead to all manner of com¬ 
plications. The prominent abdomen, with 
the sunken diaphragm places the stomach in 
such an unnatural shape that indigestion of 
some sort is bound to follow. 

“ Poise of body is an essential not only 
for its effect on the beauty of the body, but 
also on its health. You will find your in¬ 
terest increase as you understand all the 
wonderful functions and powers that lie 
within the human frame. Do you know 
that scientists tell us that there has been no 
mechanical device, no invention, whose prin¬ 
ciples are not in the human body? 

“ Long hollow bones, as those of the arm, 
bear greater pressure than a solid one of the 
same weight. Constructive engineers used 
the same principles in the hollow tubes in 
iron bridges. The camera is the mechanical 
eye; the telephone is but a mechanical ear; 
the pumps of different sorts are but the 


38 


THE GIRL BEAUTIFUL 


heart; levers, three kinds are found in the 
bones and muscles; sewerage and water sys¬ 
tems of the city are enlarged copies of our 
system of blood-vessels. So, you see, there 
is nothing new under the sun. The wonder¬ 
ful mechanism of the human body awakens 
our admiration and faith in that Power 
whose mind conceived all this at the begin¬ 
ning of the world. 

“ I never thought of it in that way before,” 
said Margaret. “ To think of one’s self as 
a wonderful creature makes one wish to 
make the best of one’s self.” She studied 
herself for a few minutes longer, still breath¬ 
ing deeply as she had been instructed, and 
keeping her neck extended and her head 
high as though her one ambition was to 
touch the ceiling. 

“ Keep that position and walk across the 
room. Let your arms swing easily, but do 
not bend them at the elbow,” said Miss Jane. 
She put Margaret through these paces sev¬ 
eral times, having her walk up and down the 
full length of the entire room. 

“ Now, Margaret, I will give you an ex¬ 
ercise to throw your shoulder blades into the 
proper position. I’m glad you have a 


THE POISE 


39 


middy-suit on — and no corset. If girls 
would carry tlieir bodies as they should 
carry them stays would be wholly unneces¬ 
sary. 

“Lie down on the floor — flat on your 
back.” Margaret laughingly obeyed. “Put 
your feet close together; knees touching; 
arms straight down with palms toward the 
floor. Now move the arms straight from 
your body — do not bend at the elbow. 
Your arms are only pokers joined to your 
body at the shoulder. Move them out until 
they extend at right angles from your body, 
continue until they stretch out straight and 
meet above your head. Remember that all 
the time they must not be raised from the 
floor.” 

Margaret followed the instructions. She 
found that the movement had two effects of 
which she was conscious at once. The mus¬ 
cles about her waist seemed to stretch out 
and expand, and she could feel the shoulder- 
blades flatten out so that every inch of her 
back, from shoulder to shoulder, rested on 
the floor. 

“ You must go through this exercise one 
hundred times a day, but not all at once,” 


40 


THE GIRL BEAUTIFUL 


said Miss Jane. “ The breathing exercise 
and position must be taken as many times. 
Stand before your mirror for the last. Mir¬ 
rors are wonderful educators if we use them 
to study our weak points instead of to cater 
to our vanity. 

“ When you first awake in the morning, 
stretch out your arms straight over your 
head and yawn. Stretch your body until 
every muscle is at its full length. You’ve 
seen cats do that. All the cat kind, famous 
for their grace of motion, are addicted to 
the stretching habit. Add yawning to this, 
and you have a physical exercise which is 
as fine as any medical gymnasium can give 
you.” 

“ I shall do that. If I can improve my 
carriage —” 

“Your carriage is your greatest fault. 
We’ll overcome that first. No one has many 
hindrances to beauty, but it is the nature 
of humanity to see the faults first, 

“ Old time people used to tell us to hold 
back our shoulders. I remember my mother 
used to admonish me as I set out for school, 
to throw back my shoulders. It was wrong. 
Give no thought to the shoulder; breathe 


THE POISE 


41 


deep; raise the breast-bone; stretch out the 
neck and try to keep the head as near as 
possible to the ceiling, and all other parts 
of the body fall in to relation with these. 

“ This is your first lesson in ‘ poise.’ ” 


CHAPTER VI 

THE PIVOTAL POINTS 

4 6 T THINK the Divine Providence in- 
X tended women to be beautiful/’ said 
Miss Jane one day, “ because the very 
things which add to their health and mental 
and moral development also increase their 
beauty. Whenever we use natural means 
to add to our beauty we are advancing our 
health, and vice versa.” She paused. Her 
talks to the girls together were not long. 
Sometimes it was only a general truth let 
fall. Her especial work was to point out 
to each one her own individual defect and 
to eradicate that. 

Several lines of procedure took place 
daily. She either read to the girls or had 
them read some beautiful story. It was al¬ 
ways one which would awaken their intellect 
or make an appeal to their sympathy; for 
a woman without sympathy or with an in- 
42 


THE PIVOTAL POINTS 


43 


tellect in an atrophied state falls far from 
the standard of beauty. At other times 
she quoted some lofty sentiments or expres¬ 
sions. Gradually she was filling the mind 
with beautiful thoughts outside the realm 
of self, so that vanity, envy, malice, like the 
weeds in a cultivated garden would be 
choked out by plants productive of good. 

A walk was another essential — sleeping 
with the windows open. These were prin¬ 
ciples already known to the girls and ones 
which Miss Jane insisted should be carried 
out without variation or excuse. 

The great number of girls, and indeed al¬ 
most all of the women in the town, had one 
fault in common — a fault which detracted 
from their units of health, and from their 
grace of position and walking. 

Rose Mathers, perhaps, had this fault 
to a greater degree than any other of the 
“ Health and Beauty Club.” 

Miss Jane spoke to her one morning as 
she came into the house. “ Rose, will you 
allow me to use you as an example to demon¬ 
strate a few points? I must be personal 
and critical. Can you stand it?” 

Rose was good natured. “ Yes, if I can 


44 


THE GIEL BEAUTIFUL 


be one horrible example to the others, flay 
me alive, and I flinch not.” 

“ The blood of martyrs is in yonr veins, 
Rose. I shall take advantage of yonr spirit 
of self-sacrifice.” 

When the girls met later in the afternoon, 
Miss Jane requested Rose to walk across 
the room as she was accustomed to walk. 
Rose did this several times. “ Now, stop 
and keep the same position.” 

Rose did so. Miss Jane went to her. “I 
wish you to observe where the body has bent 
or turned as though on a hinge,” said Miss 
Jane. “ She has bent at the knees, at the 
waist-line, and between the shoulders and 
at the neck. She is all wrong. There are 
certain hinges in the body which permit 
movement, but it is not necessary to use 
them all in walking. Counting down from 
the head the seventh vertebra has a little 
projection. You can feel it very plainly. 
In horses this is about the position where 
the check-rein fastens. In the human body, 
this has been sometimes commonly called 
the ‘ check-rein vertebra/ One need not 
bend the spine at this point unless under 
unusual circumstances. The spine is not to 


THE PIVOTAL POINTS 


45 


be bent at this point in walking. Indeed, 
the spine is not to be bent at all. It has 
a different action. I shall bring up that 
point later. 

“ Now, observe the bend at the waist-line. 
She bends forward. The position makes un¬ 
graceful lines in the back. More than that, 
the stomach is again crowded and digestion 
impaired. Such a position does not permit 
free and deep breathing. It may also con¬ 
strain the action of the head. So you see 
that from a hygienic standpoint it is bad. 

“ Then look at the knees.” She drew up 
Rose’s skirt, displaying knees bent forward. 

“ There should be no bending from the 
knees at all while walking,” said Miss Jane. 
“ It is a decidedly ungraceful motion. For¬ 
tunately, women’s skirts hide this. If you 
wish to see how ungainly and awkward it is 
stand on a street some day and observe men 
crossing the street. You will see that he of 
dignity and bearing does not bend at the 
knees. You’ll laugh when you perceive one 
who does. He will suggest a jack-knife 
about to close and then changing its mind 
when the blade is at right-angles with the 
handle.” 


46 


THE GIRL BEAUTIFUL 


“ Where shall we move? ” asked Virginia. 
“ I must move along somehow", and gener¬ 
ally I want to move quickly.” 

“ Nature has provided pivotal points. If 
we move from those which permit a free 
swing of the body, we can not fail to be 
graceful, and we shall surely be more hygi¬ 
enic. The hip is the pivotal point. When 
we walk the legs should swing free from the 
hip. It should seem to us that from hip 
to ankle was one single continuous line. 
Now, Rose, try that,” 

Rose walked the length of the room swing¬ 
ing her limbs from the hip and keeping the 
knee almost unflexed. 

“ It makes me feel taller,” said Rose, “ and 
my steps are longer.” 

“And also more unrestrained and easy,” 
said Virginia. 

“One thing I noticed, Miss Jane, when 
Rose walked from the hips her skirts hung 
better. They seemed to swing with the 
body, and not have two separate and dis¬ 
tinct motions.” 

“You have caught the idea,” said Miss 
Jane. “ Unity of motion is one of the essen¬ 
tials of grace. Now, Rose, I wish you to 


THE PIVOTAL POINTS 


47 


walk up and down again. This time, there 
must be no curves in your spine. It must 
be one straight line from head to hips. As 
before, you must swing your limbs from the 
hips.” 

Rose did as she was bid. “ That makes 
my waist longer in front,” she said. 

“ Yes, and your stomach does not seem 
so high,” said Virginia. “ It is a big im¬ 
provement, Rose.” 

“ For which Pm very thankful,” was the 
reply. 

“ Now, Rose, I will excuse you,” said Miss 
Jane, “ and I will ask Virginia to come upon 
the gridiron.” 

“ To be roasted,” Virginia exclaimed as 
she came forward. 

“ Well, I shall not object if you turn all 
my greenness to a golden brown.” 

“ Virginia, please stand at this table. It 
is the height of the average working-table 
in the kitchen. Imagine that you are wash¬ 
ing dishes or making sandwiches, go through 
the motion. The other girls must observe 
you, and see if your lines are correct, and 
if your position makes for health as well as 
grace. Remember this — nature does not 


48 


THE GIRL BEAUTIFUL 


work in cramped quarters. She must have 
room for the full play of the organs.” 

Virginia bent forward. “ I am cutting 
bread,” she said gayly. “ I am making 
imaginary sandwiches for you girls to eat.” 

She worked in this way for some minutes. 
Bertha, who as usual was sitting with her 
lower jaw relaxed and her mouth open, dis¬ 
covered the fault in Virginia’s position. 

“ She’s not bending from the hips,” she 
exclaimed. 

“ Yes, that is the point which I wished to 
make,” said Miss Jane. “ She should bend 
from the pivotal point at the hips, and not 
from the waist. After a full meal, such a 
position as Virginia had would retard diges¬ 
tion to a very great extent. It spoils the 
lines of her figure both at the hips and over 
the abdomen. 

“ Remember, girls, the connection with 
positions of the body. The seat of physical 
life is the chest. There are the heart and 
lungs. Keep the chest extended, the breast¬ 
bone raised and generally all other parts of 
the body will fall into their natural position. 

“ Now, Virginia, bend from the hips and 
continue cutting the bread for your imagi- 


THE PIVOTAL POINTS 


49 


nary sandwiches. There should be but two 
lines in your body, now. One from hips to 
floor,— the second at an angle to this from 
hips to crown of head. 

“ When you go home study the height of 
your working-table. Women would find 
housework easier, more healthful, and a di¬ 
rect means to grace of body if they would 
look after such little matters as the height 
of working-tables and sinks. 

“ Few tables are high enough. The 
worker should never bend at the waist or 
at the shoulders; but always from the hips. 
There is yet another instance when the hip 
must be kept in mind as the pivotal point 
of motion. That is when going down stairs. 
Physicians used to say that people suffer¬ 
ing with heart disease and indigestion 
should not climb stairs. Now, stair climb¬ 
ing is looked upon as beneficial if it is done 
properly. 

“ The proper way is to bend from the hips 
— with no curve at all at the waist. If you 
are out of breath when you reach a third or 
fourth flight you have bent at your waist 
line and have moved too fast. 

“ Climbing stairs in the proper way is a 


50 


THE GIRL BEAUTIFUL 


fine physical exercise. Each day, I wish 
you to make your trips upstairs an exercise 
toward health and beauty.” 

“ You are very utilitarian,” said Virginia. 

“ Have I not already told you that Victor 
Hugo said that ‘ Beauty was as useful as a 
useful thing, and perhaps more so ? ? ” 


CHAPTER VII 


POSITION IN SITTING 

B ERTHA sat in an easy chair when 
Miss Jane entered the room. Know¬ 
ing Bertha one would know the way she 
would be sitting. The weight of her body 
was resting on the small of her back, or 
spine. Her feet were stretched out and her 
knees were far apart. When she relaxed 
she let her lower jaw fall, and her mouth 
hang open. 

Miss Jane found it difficult to say any¬ 
thing to her. Bertha was one of the diffi¬ 
cult girls to teach. She was the supersti¬ 
tious kind. 

One morning when she came in to see Miss 
Jane, the latter tactfully placed the caller’s 
chair between the triplicate mirrors. Ber¬ 
tha seated herself, studied her reflection, and 
yet never caught the impression that she 
was a failure as far as an artistic or hygienic 
posture was considered. 

51 


52 


THE GIRL BEAUTIFUL 


“ Bertha/’ said Miss Jane suddenly. “ I 
am going to change my way of sitting. I 
wish you would look at me now and study 
my position. Then I’ll assume another.” 

Miss Jane was sitting erect. The lines 
were good. Not an organ in her body was 
compressed or shoved out of place. She was 
easy, natural, artistic. 

“ Now, what do you think of this? ” she 
asked. She slid down in the chair, so that 
her weight rested almost on her waist line; 
let her knees separate — heels fully twelve 
inches apart, and as far out as she was able 
to stretch them. The back of her heel, in¬ 
stead of her foot, rested on the floor. To 
make matters worse, Jane let her chest sink 
and her jaw fall. 

“What do you think of this position?” 
she asked. 

“ You don’t look like the same person. 
Why, it almost deforms you.” 

“ It has the same effect on other people 
as on me,” said Miss Jane. “ I am not the 
rare exception. Bertha, study the reflec¬ 
tion in the mirror. You will find we are 
sitting very much alike.” 

Bertha was silent; but she kept her eyes 


POSITION IN SITTING 


58 


on the mirror. Hurt! She surely was. 
For an instant she was almost ready to cry, 
but she considered in time. It would be 
foolish to go to a physician for advice and 
then refuse his prescription because it was 
not to one’s liking. 

“ That is the way I sit,” she said at last. 
“ I never noticed before.” 

“ No; I know you did not, or you would 
have remedied it. Now, Bertha, first of all, 
such a position denotes a mental state. 
You may not believe that, but any trained 
teacher will support the theory. One prin¬ 
ciple of science is that every mental state 
has a corresponding physical state. A 
quick energetic mind never has a slouchy 
body. One who thinks deliberately and con¬ 
siders may be slow in physical movements, 
but if he has mental energy, however de¬ 
liberate, he will be erect.” 

“ I must be ‘ awfully ? dull to judge from 
my position,” said Bertha. 

“ Not dull — sluggish, lazy. You have 
had no ambition. You arise in the morn¬ 
ing and have no definite aim for the day. 
You have no responsibilities which are par¬ 
ticularly your own. You have nothing in 


54 


THE GIRL BEAUTIFUL 


mind to accomplish before the day is 
over.” 

“ There is nothing to do. The town is 
dull.” 

“ If you were alone on the mountain-tops 
you could find something to keep the mind 
alert. Mental alertness is not always the 
result of studious books. Sometimes far 
from it. You may make yourself mentally 
alert by taking a vital interest in something, 
and then passing that something on to an¬ 
other person. 

“ A book-worm rarely has a lively expres¬ 
sion because he delves for himself. Now, 
Bertha, what subject or work interests you 
most of all? ” 

“ I could work with flowers or a garden 
all day.” 

“Good. Then do that. Buy yourself a 
book on the building up of soil; get a floral 
guide, cultivate roses, or radishes, but try 
to make them the best of their kind. Show 
your garden to your friends, carry roses to 
all the sick in town — the old ladies — 
send them to the churches. Don’t limit 
your recipients to a few friends to whom you 
feel yourself indebted. Extend your inter- 


POSITION IN SITTING 


55 


ests. You will be surprised how absorbing 
this will be. You’ll make new friends. 
Life will become a big thing to you, if you 
follow out your trend and let it stretch out in 
all directions. Interest in living will give 
life to your eyes and your face. 

“ Why, even now, your entire expression 
was changed because you were ‘ hanging 9 on 
every word of mine.” 

“ I noticed that in the mirror,” said 
Bertha. “ It surprised me when I saw my 
own face.” 

“ That’s the first step — action of mind. 
Now the next is to know the correct position 
and to make an effort of will to cultivate it. 
The first attempts will be difficult, and you 
will be conscious and awkward. But after 
a time, that will pass away, and the correct 
position will become part of you. 

“Now, as to your position in sitting. 
Nature has been very careful to give us 
human parts adapted to their purposes. 
Compression of any kind is bad for nerves 
and the large blood-vessels. When we sit 
the entire weight must rest on some part of 
the body. Nature has padded this part with 
flesh and not given it the main nervous sys- 


56 


THE GIRL BEAUTIFUL 


tem or blood-vessels. Buttocks is the 
proper term for that part of the body which 
supports one when sitting. 

“ Now, sit erect. Your spine and back 
of the neck should be a straight line at right 
angles to the bottom of the chair and almost 
at the same angle with the femur bone 
which extends from hip to knee. There will 
be no bending at the waist. From knee to 
ankle, the line is almost at right angles with 
the floor. You have been sitting like this.” 
Miss Jane took a pencil and drew lines. 

“ You should sit for health and beauty 
like this. 

“ The same principle of poise holds true 
here as in standing and walking. There 
must be no bending from the waist. When 
you wish to lean forward, bend from the 
hips. You will often have an easy graceful 
appearance if you wish to lean lightly on 
the arm of your chair. Remember the bend¬ 
ing comes from the hips. Try to think that 
there is the only hinge you can move on. 

“ Now, about the feet when sitting. First 
the knees should never be far apart. In 
gymnasium work whenever the student 
takes a rest position, either standing, sitting 


POSITION IN SITTING 


57 


or lying on her back, her knees almost touch. 
So, do that now .’ 7 

Bertha obeyed, all the while studying her¬ 
self in the mirrors. 

“ Now, about the feet,” continued Miss 
Jane, “if chairs were always the right 
height for each person, the matter would 
be easy. You are tall. You will find as I 
do that your legs from ankle to knee are 
longer than the distance from the seat of the 
chair to the floor. If you sit with your feet 
resting plumb on the floor then your knees 
will be too high. It will be better to let the 
feet extend a little, but very little. It is 
not ungraceful to let one rest lightly on the 
instep of the other. But two positions the 
feet should never take,— they should not be 
far apart nor should they be bent sidewise 
from the ankle. Letting the feet rest on the 
side of the shoe gives the muscles a tendency 
to turn in walking. Soles worn at one side, 
heels run down may be the direct result of 
letting the feet rest on the side while one 
is sitting.” 

“ I wonder if I can remember all this,” 
cried Bertha. 

“ The best way to remember is to get in 


58 


THE GIEL BEAUTIFUL 


the correct position while you are talking 
with me. Study yourself in the mirror and 
see how you can improve your appearance.” 

Bertha acted upon the suggestion. The 
very act of assuming this gave her face an 
interest that it lacked before. 

“ Your position is good now,” said Miss 
Jane. “ After awhile it will become easier. 
There is just one other suggestion I must 
give to you. Keep your mouth closed. Do 
not press the lips together. That may give 
you too harsh a look. But have the teeth 
of the upper and lower jaw touch. 

“ Incorrect position in sitting and a hang¬ 
ing jaw are your serious faults. Overcome 
them, and then we’ll give you a few general 
touches.” Miss Jane smiled. Bertha was 
one great step ahead for she had listened 
to criticism of herself, looked her own faults 
directly in the face and set about to make 
them right. A person with this attitude of 
mind can accomplish anything. 


CHAPTER VIII 


THE FACE LIKE A ROSE LEAF 

T HE sun was at the boiling point, and 
had been for days. The athletic girls 
played tennis regardless of this heat. They 
were browned. Streaks of sun-burn showed 
on their necks. They had a good healthy 
color, to be sure, but it was not beautiful. 

Kan was showing a nice crop of freckles, 
and the epidermis was peeling from Rose’s 
nose. The girls frequently gathered on 
Miss Jane’s porch late in the afternoon. 
On this particular day came Nan, active, 
lithe; Marie, tanned deep. They carried 
rackets or golf sticks and wore middy-suits. 

Florence was not athletic. She cared 
nothing for sport, and was not fond of walk¬ 
ing. So the afternoon conference generally 
found her in a soft white dress and a picture 
hat shading her face. Her cheeks had gen¬ 
erally a good deal of color. 

59 


60 


THE GIRL BEAUTIFUL 


“ I know you don’t approve of rouge, 
Miss Jane,” she said one afternoon, seeing 
Miss Jane’s eyes upon her. “ But I must 
use something. I am so sallow and color¬ 
less.” 

“ Beauty comes from within — in more 
ways than one,” said Miss Jane. “ You are 
going contrary to the very principles I am 
seeking to instil in you. Our work is to cor¬ 
rect defects — not to coat them over. Be¬ 
neath your rouge — you are sallow. These 
outward coatings never improve the com¬ 
plexion. They merely hide. That i$ not 
what we wish.” 

“What was I to do? I did not wish to 
go about with neck and face like a duck’s 
leg.” 

“ Your liver is torpid, Florence. The first 
thing that we must do is to get it acting 
lively. Are you constipated?” 

“Yes; but I’ve always been that. No 
medicine seems to help me.” 

“No medicine will, my dear. We must 
study nature, the greatest physician in the 
universe. She has given us a remedy for 
almost every ailment. I presume for every 
ailment, but we being human have so far 


FACE LIKE A ROSE LEAF 61 


not been able to discover all of them. First, 
do you drink plenty of clear cold water — 
not ice water? ” 

“ I drink ice water and ice tea.” 

“ Then stop it, and drink water that is 
cool or cold, but not iced, and drink plenty 
of it. Then each day, I wish you to eat a 
few slices of pineapple. Do not put sugar 
on it. If there is too much acid in the 
blood, the sugar and pineapple will not be 
the best combination for it. I came, by 
chance, upon this pineapple recipe. I knew 
a woman who had prolapsus of the colon 
(a relaxing of the walls of one part of the 
bowels). It finally brought on nervous 
prostration. She was forced to be careful 
of her eating. By chance, she discovered 
that pineapple eaten at teatime or bedtime 
had the same effect as a dose of salts. I 
have since learned that mothers often give 
baby a spoonful of pineapple juice to bring 
about the same effect.” 

“ It is a medicine I could easily take,” said 
Florence. “ It is about the only fruit I care 
for.” 

“I am glad you do not like bananas,” 
said Miss Jane. “ They are one of the hard- 


62 


THE GIRL BEAUTIFUL 


est fruits to digest. Few people can eat 
them to the advantage of the body. 

“ Now, to strengthen and exercise the in¬ 
testines and stir up the bowels. The exer¬ 
cise is not an attractive one. At night and 
morning when you are in your kimono, 
stand with your body erect. Then put your 
feet as far apart as possible without bend¬ 
ing your knees. While in this position, try 
to lean forward and touch the floor with the 
finger-tips, but do not bend at the knee. 

“ Go through this a dozen times. Then 
keeping the feet and knees in the same po¬ 
sition, try to turn the body about from the 
waist-line,— right and left. 

“ There’s a very homely exercise which 
you girls may not enjoy, but I am confident 
that your mothers would rejoice to know 
that you were taking it regularly. That is 
good vigorous sweeping of carpets, not mat¬ 
ting, or scrubbing with a broom. 

“ If possible, do not wear corsets while 
you are sweeping, or any tight bands about 
the waist. 

“ I wish you would try this, and study 
your muscular movement as you do so. 
You will discover that the abdominal mus- 


FACE LIKE A ROSE LEAF 63 


cles are exercised vigorously. In this, as in 
all other exercises and works, remember 
that there must be no bending from the 
waist-line, but only from the hips.” 

“ Do you think that will give me a per¬ 
fect complexion? ” asked Florence. “ I’ll 
get up at daybreak and sweep if it will.” 

“ Not that alone. These exercises and 
food will keep the bowels and liver active 
and healthy. That assures you that no 
waste matter lies in your body to poison 
your blood, to make your mind and move¬ 
ment sluggish. It will eventually affect 
your coloring. In the meantime you must 
make the skin itself active, and that can 
not be done by clogging its pores with com¬ 
positions of lead and arsenic. Only at in¬ 
tervals should the face be washed with 
water as hot as can be borne. Once or 
twice a week, never more, and sometimes 
less. Wash in this way, when you have 
plenty of leisure. Then do not rub the 
face. Pat it dry with a soft towel. When 
it is thoroughly dry, rub in some cold cream. 
Always use the soft little cushions on the 
tips of the fingers. Massage gently with a 
circular motion. About the corners of the 


64 


THE GIRL BEAUTIFUL 


moutli and eyes, let the movement be up¬ 
ward ; for the muscles at these places are apt 
to wrinkle first or droop. Spend five or ten 
minutes at this. Then let the cream remain 
on the face until most of it is absorbed. 
This will require at least half an hour. 
Then with a chamois or soft handkerchief 
gently wipe off what is not absorbed, and 
powder the face with talcum or rice-pow¬ 
der. 

“ Hot water used too frequently weakens 
the muscles and makes them look flabby. I 
am not in favor of a girl having her 
face steamed by a professional masseur. 
Women who have had this treatment fre¬ 
quently find that the skin and flesh of their 
face has lost its elasticity and life. 

“ Ordinarily, in the morning, or before 
you retire at night, bathe the face and neck 
in warm water, using a good soap. It is 
not necessary to pay a high price for fancy 
soaps which are manufactured in France. 
Castile, bought by the pound, is good. 
There’s a five-cent a cake soap on the mar¬ 
ket which the chemical test has pronounced 
good. 

“ But whatever soap you use rinse it off 


FACE LIKE A ROSE LEAF 65 


thoroughly. Then dash cold water over the 
face, neck, chest and arms. There is noth¬ 
ing more conducive to a healthy skin than 
this treatment. It lies within the reach of 
every one, takes little time, and costs noth¬ 
ing. 

“ The cold bath, shower, plunge or sponge, 
is one of the finest things for the general 
health, nervous system and complexion. I 
shall tell you more of that later. 

“ If you are wise, you will never begin to 
use cosmetics. I do not count rice-powder, 
good talcum and cold cream in that class. 
A doctor will prescribe them for use on the 
delicate skin of an infant. One must be 
sure to get toilet preparations which are 
free of any chemical.” 

“What about freckles and sunburn?” 
asked Kan. “ At the end of the summer I 
look like the daughter of a Comanche chief.” 

“ Freckles are a sign of health. When 
there is plenty of mineral matter in the 
blood the iron shows forth in freckles. 
They appear on surfaces exposed to the sun. 
Your freckles are really rust spots. If you 
will apply peroxide of hydrogen every time 
you bathe your face, the freckles will dis- 


66 


THE GIRL BEAUTIFUL 


appear. But it will take time, so you must 
not be discouraged. If you observe the girl 
with freckles, you will see that beneath her 
freckles the skin is generally clear and 
transparent; the white of the eyes absolutely 
free of a yellow tinge. It is the fair girl 
who is affected. She may lay the happy 
unction to her heart that freckles mean pure 
blood well supplied with minerals. 

“ Peroxide of hydrogen is also good to 
remove sunburn. But let me warn you, 
girls, that the red burns which come on your 
neck because you have been swimming in 
the sun may take years to remove. It is 
not pretty to see two dark streaks on the 
back of a woman’s neck.” 

“ I’d hate to give up my swimming,” said 
Janet. “ It is the pleasure of the entire 
summer.” 

“ It is not necessary to give it up, nor is 
it necessary to have your neck burnt. It 
will not take away the pleasure of the swim¬ 
ming to tie a silk handkerchief or a middy- 
tie about your neck so that it is well pro¬ 
tected. In swimming, the front of the neck 
is not so much exposed to the sun as the 
back is.” 


FACE LIKE A ROSE LEAF 67 


“ Tennis is as bad as swimming,” said 
Mildred. 

“ Tan and sun-burn wear away after a 
time. Peroxide hurries the process. But 
why get tanned or sunburnt? ” 

“ Would you have us sit in doors all day, 
just to escape, Miss Jane?” 

“ Far from that. It is very simple. Be¬ 
fore you go out, apply a generous applica¬ 
tion of cold cream to your neck, and end of 
your nose. Then dust thick with rice pow¬ 
der. If you are careful to rub the chamois 
lightly over it the powder will not be ob¬ 
served.” 

“ What about vaseline? ” 

“ Vaseline is too heavy for most skins to 
absorb. It is a lubricating, rather than a 
vanishing oil. The cold cream serves two 
purposes. It holds a heavier coat of pow¬ 
der, and it also prevents the powder from 
clogging the pores. When you come back 
home, you can wash the powder off and the 
skin will be found moist and soft. The 
same application on the hands and arms 
will keep them in excellent condition. The 
cold cream is food; and feeds the muscles 
to a small extent.” 


CHAPTER IX 


PERFECT COMPLEXIONS 

6 4 T])ERFECT complexions are like great- 
JL ness; some are born with them; some 
achieve them. Diet, proper exercise and 
external treatment do wonders for the com¬ 
plexion. A brunette can not transfer her¬ 
self into a blonde in this matter. I know 
no reason why she should wish to — for a 
dark clear skin may be beautiful, for often 
its complements are beautiful eyes and hair. 
One artist speaks of the beauty in the olive 
skin. If you look for it, you will find that 
it is a rarity. Not one in a thousand pos¬ 
sesses it. It is beautiful. I found it once 
in a most peculiar combination — brown 
eyes, soft and gentle as those of a fawn, and 
yellow hair. 

“ Complexion is not skin. It is some¬ 
thing deeper and harder to reach. It is 
directly affected by the stomach and nerves. 


PERFECT COMPLEXIONS 


69 


u The very deep source of good coloring 
is sleeping in the fresh air, living in the 
fresh air as much as possible; eating plain 
wholesome foods. Different foods affect 
people differently. Study yourself and no¬ 
tice the effect on your own health and looks.” 

“ I’m afraid I should become discouraged 
if I’d study myself very much,” said Maude, 
with a sigh. “ My skin is rough, and I can¬ 
not get rid of pimples.” 

Miss Jane smiled. “ Do you really wish 
to get rid of them, Maude? ” 

“ I certainly do. Why, I’d be really good 
looking if I could rid myself of these.” 

“ Very well. The prescription for you is 
very simple. You eat too much candy. 
I’ve never seen you but what you were 
munching sweets.” 

“ I’m so fond of them. I—” 

“ You must decide between the two — 
better complexion or candy,” said Miss Jane. 

“ I’ll give up the candy,” said Maude. “ I 
presume I’ll get along just as well without 
it.” 

“ I eat candy, Miss Jane,” said Ethel. 
“ My complexion is not so bad.” 

Every one smiled at the remark. Ethel’s 


70 


THE GIEL BEAUTIFUL 


face was like the petal of a delicately tinted 
rose, soft as the skin of a baby. 

“ How old are you, Ethel? ” asked Miss 
Jane. 

“ I’ll be eighteen my next birthday,” was 
the reply. 

“How much do you weigh?” was Miss 
Jane’s next question. 

“ One hundred and sixty. But why do 
you ask me that question? It is my weak 
point.” 

“ I should say it was your strong point,” 
said Miss Jane. “You’re gaining right 
along, I think you told me.” Miss Jane 
paused and studied the girl. Then she be¬ 
gan. 

“ You should weigh about one hundred 
and twenty. All the caramels and sweets 
that you have been eating have turned into 
fat. Your skin and flesh is like that of a 
baby. It is very pretty now, if one does 
not understand it. But your flesh is really 
a fatty degeneration. If you do not put a 
stop to it, in a few years you will be un¬ 
wieldy from your flesh, and your cheeks will 
be flabby, and the muscles of your neck and 
throat will hang in bags.” 


PERFECT COMPLEXIONS 


71 


“ Oh, Miss Jane!” exclaimed Ethel. 
“ Please do not draw such a picture of me. 
It frightens me.” 

“ I am drawing it in time to save you from 
that. Maude’s excess of sweets shows in 
erruptions on the skin; yours displays itself 
in fat. But more than looks will suffer. 
You are actually undermining your health.” 

“ So I must keep from sweets? ” 

“ There is no must about this, Ethel. I 
talk with you all with the idea in mind that 
you wish to make the most of yourself in 
every way. I believe you have will enough 
to fix your purpose.” 

“ I’ll stop sweets. Must I stop eating 
everything of the kind? ” 

“ That will scarcely be necessary. You 
eat candy at all hours, in all quantities and 
all qualities. Eliminate the candy-eating 
for severak months and see if you do not 
lose flesh.” 

“ It is not candy which makes me what I 
am,” sighed Kate. She was tall, lank, sal¬ 
low. “ I eat very little candy.” 

“You eat meat three times a day,” said 
Miss Jane with a smile. “Is that not 
true? ” 


72 


THE GIRL BEAUTIFUL 


“ Yes; but I cannot imagine how you 
found that out. I never told you that.” 

“ That is one of my secrets,” said Miss 
Jane. “A great deal of meat is not good 
for you. Never eat it more than once a 
day, and get along without it for even a 
longer time, if you can. Your eyes are not 
clear. There are tiny little yellow sacs in 
the corners. Look in the glass and see for 
yourself. No one would notice them unless 
he were taught to observe closely; but they 
spoil the brilliance of your eyes.” 

Kate moved to the dresser-table and took 
up a hand glass. “ It’s really true. I never 
noticed that before. Now, since I know 
that the corners of my eye balls are yellow 
instead of blue-white, I’ll see that every 
time I look in a mirror.” She shrugged her 
shoulders, and tried to turn the subject 
aside with a light remark. “ Yellow isn’t 
my color either. What shall I do about 
it?” 

“ The world is a wonderful place,” said 
Miss Jane, as though she had forgotten all 
about sallow people and their woes. 
“ There are all manner of evils in the world, 
but fortunately for all evils nature has pro- 


PERFECT COMPLEXIONS 


73 


vided a cure. You remember that when 
Pandora opened the big casket, through curi¬ 
osity, and let out all the evils, she closed 
it quickly enough when she discovered what 
she had done. Then she heard a little voice 
from within begging to be let out, and de¬ 
claring that it would cure the evils. So 
fortunately, Pandora opened the box again.” 

“ It is a very pretty story,” said Kate, 
“ but, pray tell me what has that to do with 
my complexion and the yellow in my eyes? ” 

“It proves that there is a remedy. A 
very simple remedy, too for you. Eat 
pineapple once a day to cure you of con¬ 
stipation ; eat stewed rhubarb for breakfast, 
for lunch, for dinner. Whenever you can 
have a mess of dandelion-greens. Rhubarb 
and dandelion will make the liver more 
active. Eat very little meat. Bacon will 
be best for you. I would not eat eggs. 
Drink plenty of water—” 

“ Water tastes ‘ flat ? to me. I never can 
swallow a glass of it.” 

“Put lemon juice, but no sugar in it. 
Drink no coffee or tea. Suggest to your 
mother that you will do the marketing. 
That will give you a walk with your 


74 


THE GIRL BEAUTIFUL 


thoughts employed at an early hour in the 
morning. Once a week turn the handle of 
the washer— 

“ A washwoman comes to do the washing. 
She’s in the laundry. But we have a wash¬ 
ing machine with a handle that goes round 
and round.” 

“ Women with servants miss so much gym¬ 
nasium work. If you would give twenty 
minutes moving the handle of the washer, 
all the while keeping your waist line 
straight, you would develop your figure and 
help persuade your liver to become active.” 

“ I’ll do that,” said Kate. “ I would 
work harder than that if I would develop 
physically and have life and energy in my 
flesh.” 

“ After such exercise, you will find that 
you have become thirsty. Drink all you 
can — but not ice-water. Ice-water chills 
the stomach and retards digestion.” 

“ Need I take no medicine? ” 

“ No; rhubarb, pineapple, grape-fruit and 
any stewed fruits will improve you. Prunes 
are excellent. Bananas must not be eaten.” 

“ In two months I will be curves instead 
of angles — while the bloom on a peach will 


PERFECT COMPLEXIONS 75 


blush for itself when it sees my cheeks/’ 
said. Kate, strutting up and down the room. 

“ You’ve just come to the river, you have 
not crossed it yet,” said Bertha. 

“ Another course I would suggest to you 
all,” said Miss Jane. “ Be sure that the 
body is perfectly clean each night before re¬ 
tiring. Wash the face, neck, chest and arms 
with warm water and soap, rinsing off the 
soap thoroughly. Dry the skin thoroughly. 
If your skin is dry and harsh, rub in cold 
cream. 

“ If you wish the flesh of your neck and 
arms to be plump and firm, dash cold water 
over them night and morning — use the 
water as cold as you can bear it. Shiver¬ 
ing at first will not matter, if the reaction 
or glow of warmth sets in when you begin 
to rub. You need have no hollow place in 
the neck if you continue this for six months. 
Moreover, the dash of cold water is a pre¬ 
ventive against cold.” 

“ My skin is always as dry and harsh after 
an automobile ride,” said Marne. “ It burns 
when I wash it,” 

“ I am glad that you mentioned that,” 
said Miss Jane. 


76 


THE GIRL BEAUTIFUL 


“ After a long ride on a railroad train, or 
in an automobile, when you feel covered 
with cinders and dust, do not wash the face 
at once. Wipe off with a soft cloth; rub 
in cold cream, let it remain for some min¬ 
utes and rub off. Then give another appli¬ 
cation. Do this several times. The face 
will look fresh and clean and will feel cool. 
An hour or so later, water and soap may 
be used.” 


CHAPTER X 


ABOUT FOOD 

I T had been a strenuous day for Marie. 

She had charge of the children’s play¬ 
ground, and from eight o’clock in the morn¬ 
ing until five at night she had entertained 
little six year olds, teaching them how to 
play games. 

She was very tired when she came home. 
She found Miss Jane there. She was to 
stay for tea. 

Marie found her and her mother on the 
living porch together. After greeting them, 
Marie said, “ I am worn out. I’ll slip up 
and take a bath and dress. Then I’ll come 
down to dinner. Mother, I shall disgrace 
you by the way I eat. I am really on the 
verge of starvation. I have had nothing 
but a little lunch since breakfast.” 

Miss Jane smiled, then arose. “ I am 
training the lady to take care of her health 
77 


78 


THE GIRL BEAUTIFUL 


and her looks,” she said to Mrs. Hillyer. 
“ This is an opportune time. I must insist 
upon her taking care of herself now.” 

“ Surely,” said Marie, “ but what could 
be better than a bath and a good meal when 
one is tired and hungry? ” 

“ Almost anything else, Marie,” said Miss 
Jane. 

“ Here, lie down on the davenport in the 
living-room. It is cool, dark and quiet. 
Lie flat on your back with this little pillow 
under your head. Now, shut your eyes and 
build air castles for awhile. Til come back 
in a few minutes.” 

Miss Jane left the room. In the course 
of a few minutes, she came back with a cup 
of hot chocolate. Marie sipped this slowly, 
and then turned her head on the pillow and 
dozed. It was only a few seconds before 
she awakened with a start. She looked at 
the clock. She had been lying down just 
one-half hour. 

“ May I get up? ” she asked Miss Jane. 

“ Yes, and take your bath and eat a full 
dinner if you wish. It was only the half 
hour which I wished.” 

Marie followed her own inclination. She 


ABOUT FOOD 


79 


took a sponge bath of tepid water, dressed 
in a soft white dress and came down to the 
dining-room. 

“ I was invited to go canoeing this even¬ 
ing,” she said. “ I was so tired when I came 
home from the play-ground that I thought 
I could not go, but I feel fine now.” 

Miss Jane was careful to select the time 
and place for discussions and talks along 
this line; now she remarked that she was 
glad that Marie felt rested. The next day, 
however, she spoke to the girls on the sub¬ 
ject. 

“ Would you fill your stove full of wood 
when there was just a smoldering live coal 
there?” she began. “ If you have two or 
three live coals would you dump a bucket¬ 
ful of coal on it? I think not. You would 
coax the fire into life by feeding it a little 
at first, and then you could fill the entire 
fire-box with wood or coal. The same prin¬ 
ciple holds true about the body.” 

“ Marie came in tired to the point of ex¬ 
haustion. By mere force of will she might 
have bathed, dressed, eaten a big meal and 
then gone out for the evening. But she 
would have been forcing herself to do it, 


80 


THE GIRL BEAUTIFUL 


and there would really have been no enjoy¬ 
ment for her. Then, too, she was running 
accounts on her physical strength; actually 
overdrawing her account of energy, and 
overdrawing one’s account in any business 
is not good policy. 

“ The half-hour, taken when it was needed, 
was equal to an entire day taken at the end 
of the week or when she had continued to 
allow herself to be ‘ dead tired.’ Clear up 
all the physical debts each day. Rest for 
the weariness that the day has accumulated. 

“ A bath when one is tired out physically 
takes vitality from one. She would have 
lost instead of gained by taking it then. 
Her muscles were tired; her nerves were 
tired. Nature was taking care of the body 
by relaxing body and nerves. Marie would 
have whipped them on by pure force of 
will. The best cause to pursue under such 
circumstances is to let the body have a 
chance to relax. Close the eyes, lie on the 
back in a cool, orderly, quiet room, where 
the air is good. 

“ Then Marie was hungry. She had a 
great desire to eat. But eating a full meal 
when one is tired out is one of the worst 


ABOUT FOOD 


81 


possible courses one can follow. A cup of 
hot milk, if one can drink it, or of cocoa or 
chocolate is best. A cracker, or a little 
toast with tea will be next in value. A few 
minutes absolute rest, and a little something 
to eat is the rest-cure.” 

“ Do you think it will be worth while if 
a girl is very, very tired? ” asked Alice. 

“ I know it will. I know one teacher who 
kept herself in good order by relaxing for 
half an hour. She got into a kimono and 
took the hair pins from her hair, for she 
had a wealth of it which tired her to carry. 
But instead of tea or cocoa, she had a drink 
made from home-made fruit jelly dissolved 
in water.” 

“ That is fine,” exclaimed Bertha. “ We 
always put a glass of currant-jelly in our 
sherbet when our ladies’ society meets.” 

“ It has no alcohol in it. It has sugar 
and fruit-juice, two of the best foods imagin¬ 
able. In the form of a beverage it needs 
no digestion. If you study yourself you 
may discover that eating a heavy meal when 
physically tired leads to a bilious attack 
and if continued to chronic dyspepsia.” 

“Miss Jane, while we’re on this subject 


82 


THE GIRL BEAUTIFUL 


may I speak of personal matters? I never 
knew what it was to be ‘ bilious ? or have any 
trouble with my food digesting. Mother 
was in the hospital, and I took charge of 
the house. We had a splendid cook and 
our meals were well selected and well pre¬ 
pared, but I found that I could not retain 
food in my stomach. When mother came 
home, I was well again.” It was LaRue 
who spoke. She was in a scientific turn of 
mind, and was always looking for the reason 
of things. 

“ I have several times told you that nature 
tries to help us. She puts up wmrning signs 
wherever she can. We will not always stop 
long enough to read. Your mind was so 
engrossed with thoughts of your mother that 
your energy was all directed in that line. 
You had too little to digest your food. You 
ate the same amount as usual, but the usual 
amount of power was not in the digestive 
tract.” 

“ It worried me a great deal when I could 
not retain my food,” she said. 

“ There was no reason. Nature was 
taking care of you. She was saying to you 
as plain as she could, * Too much food. We 


ABOUT FOOD 


83 


are out of energy here in the stomach and 
cannot burn it up. Throw out all we can¬ 
not use.* You should have been wise, 
and not given them so much food next 
time.” 

“ I never knew that,” said Alice. “ I 
have an idea that people are at death’s 
door when they cannot keep food on the 
stomach.” 

“ It is frequently a sign that the entire 
nervous system is exhausted, but that is only 
when people are under a great strain for 
months. But when the mind is deeply en¬ 
grossed, or concerned, digestion is not 
carried on. Power can not be all places at 
once. I once knew an American physician 
who was educated in Germany. She told 
me it was often the sign of a normal stomach 
to throw off food. A healthy baby will spit 
out ‘ too much ’ milk. The child is not sick. 
Its stomach is normal, and taking care of 
itself.” 

“ Then we should never eat when we are 
tired out or under a mental strain? ” asked 
Kuth. 

“ Eat but very little and very light food. 
It would be better to eat more frequently 


84 


THE GIRL BEAUTIFUL 


than any great amount at one time. The 
Germans and Hungarians always have a 
thin soup before they partake of a heavy 
meal. The hot fluid needs no digestion, but 
sets* the digestive fluids acting. Several of 
you girls tell me that you have spells of in¬ 
digestion. It would be a good idea to have 
hot beef broth before you begin a full meal. 
When you are tired, it is excellent.” 

“ My father has lozenges he takes,” said 
Mabel. “I think they are soda-mints.” 

“ I know an old woman who goes about 
nursing who gives soda — just common bak¬ 
ing soda dissolved in water. It helps too.” 

Miss Jane smiled. “ Now, girls, imagine 
the tired nerves and muscles of the stomach 
being laden with too much food and too 
heavy for that particular stomach. The 
stomach is not strong enough to get rid of 
it all and casts it out. So the food lies 
there and ferments, and gas rises, and 
forces itself up until it presses upon the 
heart. There’s a great deal of discomfort. 
Then instead of helping, you give it soda. 
Did you ever wash your hands in a solu¬ 
tion of baking soda — as much soda as 
water? Your hands would suffer, and yet 


ABOUT FOOD 


85 


you would put that in the stomach — whose 
coating is fine, sensitive to alkalies.” 

“ I have done that very thing,” said Laura, 
“ but I did not know any better. What 
would you do if you ate too much? ” 

“ Stop eating for an entire day. Then 
for a day eat dry toast, or a thin slice of 
bacon. If there is pain in the stomach and 
you are afraid of a sick headache, try the 
prescription once given to me. I was ill 
in Washington. A high-priced specialist 
came. She made me drink hot water with 
a little salt. I drank three cups and my 
stomach threw out food with it. She kept 
rinsing the stomach free of food until the 
water seemed sweet and remained in the 
stomach without an effort. 

“ She gave me no medicine, but she 
charged me a big bill for her common 


CHAPTER XI 


FLAT FEET 

L ENA was very handsome. Perhaps no 
other girl in town had more beautiful 
hair, which was brown, with suggestions of 
red; a skin as soft and clean as that of a 
baby; beautiful gray eyes with long lashes. 
Lena looked her best when sitting. When 
she walked, she was awkward, yet it was not 
awkwardness which comes because she 
lacked poise of body. Her shoulders and 
chest were in correct position, and she moved 
from her hips instead of her waist-line. 
Every muscle was strong and elastic. The 
trouble lay in her feet, and in just a little 
portion of the foot. 

It was sometimes very difficult for Miss 
Jane to speak plainly to the girls, but they 
were so interested in making the most of 
themselves that they were willing to listen 
to criticism. 

Lena gave her an opportunity one after- 
86 


FLAT FEET 87 

noon when the girls were planning to take 
a long walk. 

“ Don’t count me in the party,” said Lena. 
“ I cannot walk so far.” 

“ Why not? ” asked Miss Jane. 

“ My feet give out. When I stand to do 
any work at all they ache. I presume that 
is why I am really awkward in my move¬ 
ments. I have the feeling all the while that 
I must i protect ’ or save my feet. I do not 
walk with such a springing elastic step as 
the other girls. Did you ever know a girl 
of sixteen to go like that? I enjoy going 
into the country and over the mountains, 
too.” 

“ Yes, I have heard of it,” said Miss Jane. 
“ You have low shoes on. Would you ob¬ 
ject to slipping one off and standing on your 
foot without the shoe? ” 

“ I’ll do anything if you will give me some 
new ideas,” she said, slipping off her shoes. 
“ I try to be careful, Miss Jane, about my 
foot-wear. I always get a well-made shoe 
and, as you see, I wear low flat heels. I 
knew that high heels were unhygienic.” 

Miss Jane could not refrain smiling at 
this. Bending over, she looked at Lena’s 


88 


THE GIRL BEAUTIFUL 


foot. On the inside there was little or no 
curve; the foot touched the floor flat, and 
the instep lacked a curve. 

“ You have what doctors call ‘ flat-foot.’ 
It is very painful, for the hones in the arch 
have fallen ‘flat’ and press upon nerves. 
There are no broken bones in a broken arch. 
It is only that the muscles are too weak to 
hold the bones in place.” 

“ Is there any help for it? ” 

“Yes; and the first is — dispose of your 
flat-heeled shoes. Buy shoes with medium 
or high heels; but they must be broad and 
straight. They must come directly under 
the heel of the foot. A French heel will not 
do. It is too slender and comes under the 
middle of the foot. A so-called Cuban or 
military heel is good. 

“ Select shoes with a high arch instep. 
They will support the fallen muscles. It 
is possible to buy arch supports or shoes with 
the support built in. But orthopedists do 
not favor this, as it gives support, but does 
not strengthen. Select your shoe. Take 
a little Red-Cross cotton, fold a little here.” 
Miss Jane put her fingers under the arch 
and pressed it upward. “You will know 


FLAT FEET 


89 


when it is in correct position, for your toes 
will lie straight and the little cushions 
under the ends of the toes will touch the 
floor. See, when I remove my fingers, the 
arch falls, and the extremities of the toes 
raise themselves from the floor.” 

“ I see now,” said Lena. “ Is it not 
strange that we do not notice those things! 
I suppose I was very unobserving.” 

“ It may not have been wholly that,” said 
Miss Jane. “ You may not have known the 
correct lines for the foot. 

“ Lay just a little pad of cotton under the 
instep on the inside, and fasten it in place 
with adhesive plaster strips. This is not 
a cure. It is only a relief. 

“ Clerks and teachers often are afflicted 
with flat feet because they stand. People 
who walk rarely have it because the move¬ 
ments of the foot in walking stretch and 
develop the muscles and cure yourself. 
Every time you bathe your feet, or change 
your footwear,— at night and morning, take 
the feet in both hands and knead and rub 
and massage them for a few minutes. Al¬ 
cohol or salt-water baths will also help to 
strengthen them. 


90 


THE GIRL BEAUTIFUL 


“ Then there must he exercise. Whenever 
yon can, and you must see to it that you 
can at least ten minutes a day, walk on your 
tip-toes. In the morning, as you move 
about your room, walk on your tip toes,— 
ascend the stairs on tip-toes. If you stand 
on tip-toe now you will see how the muscles 
stretch.” 

Lena did so. In fact all the girls who 
were present immediately stepped up and 
went through the exercise. 

“ The muscles on the inside of my foot are 
stretched out,” said Lena. 

“ Yes, that is what the exercise does for 
them. Then climb hills and mountains 
whenever you can, for when you do so you 
dig the front of the foot into the earth for 
a foot-hold, the weight is thrown on the ball 
and the muscles of the arch stretch. Climb¬ 
ing hills is the best thing you can do for 
i flat feet/ ” 

“ Shall I wear a broad shoe? ” 

“No; broad shoes are not always hygi¬ 
enic. A shoe which fits is the thing. A 
narrow shoe, but long, is generally the best 
for the foot. The last should not be curved 
too much. The great toe should lie in a 


FLAT FEET 


91 


straight line with the side of the foot. If 
the shoe is pointed, it is apt to draw the toes 
too close together, and the first joint of the 
first toe is thrown out of place. Just try 
this and see how easily you can throw the 
foot out of shape. Draw the toes close to¬ 
gether as they would be in a short-pointed 
toe shoe.” 

The girls did so and laughed. 

“It throws the joint of the great toe out of 
place,” said Marie. 

“ Yes; there is the greatest danger. The 
joint is slightly out of place. It becomes 
inflamed and enlarged. The shoes rub it, 
and there, in all its deformity, a bunion 
grows. A bunion spoils the entire shape of 
the foot; it necessitates a larger shoe and, 
I am told, is very painful. It is caused by 
shoes too short, a last which curves too sud¬ 
denly.” 

“ Is there any way of curing a bunion? ” 
asked Sally. “ I have none, but I would 
like to know in case I should have.” 

“ The best way is not to have them. An 
intelligent girl can have a perfect foot, and 
a healthy one, free of imperfections. For¬ 
tunately, the day for two things has passed, 


92 


THE GIRL BEAUTIFUL 


— the little shoe on a large foot, and the 
compressed waist. 

“ Be sure when you buy a shoe that it is 
long enough. Stand and walk in it before 
you decide, for in walking the foot must slip 
forward. The shoe must be longer than the 
foot, A medium heel, straight and directly 
under the heel of the foot; a medium thick 
sole for street wear. Then be careful never 
to let the heels run over. A little care will 
soon break one of ‘walking on the side of 
the foot,’ ” 

“ It seems very simple,” said Alice. 

“All hygienic natural things are simple. 
Shoes to-day are made in all lengths and 
widths, and a girl should take the trouble 
and time to be fitted. A well-shaped shoe is 
not only easier, but it keeps its shape better 
and wears longer.” 

“ I like a well fitting shoe,” said Beth. 
“ I think the ease of the foot has so much 
to do with one’s carriage.” 

“ The feet have a great deal to do with 
one’s health. They are often indicators of 
the condition of the kidneys. When the kid¬ 
neys can not properly throw off the poisons 
in the body, the feet swell and become very 


FLAT FEET 


9b 

sensitive and tender. Too much uric acic 
will cause bloated feet. There are innumer 
able glands in the feet which help throw oh* 
the poison in the body. They do this 
through perspiration. The feet should be 
bathed at least once a day to keep these 
glands healthy. Even more than this, if 
the perspiration is profuse. 

“ One of the finest hospitals in Philadel¬ 
phia gives a certain foot bath for swollen 
and tender feet,— a half-pound of Epsom 
salts dissolved in hot water. This neutra¬ 
lizes the acid and relieves suffering.” 

Miss Jane smiled. “ You girls do not 
need this talk, but sometime you may pass 
it on to those who do. So few people re¬ 
alize how careless they are in regard to 
stockings. A very careful person never 
puts on stockings a second time. No; it 
does not mean a dozen or more pairs, nor 
a great deal of time. At this day when 
almost every house is fitted with a bath¬ 
room, or a lavatory, it takes but a few min¬ 
utes to wash the stockings as soon as taken 
off. The feet will be in better condition, 
and the health also. 

“ If we would stop to think,— how the 


94 


THE GIRL BEAUTIFUL 


dust of the street, often polluted with germs, 
has gathered in our shoes and footwear, I 
am sure one foot-bath a day would not satis¬ 
fy us. 

“ Before leaving this subject, in cases of 
headaches or nervousness a very hot foot¬ 
bath is excellent. But it should be taken 
only just before bedtime.” 


CHAPTER XII 


THE UNRULY MEMBER 

O NE of the most difficult subjects with 
which Miss Jane had to deal in her 
struggle to have her young friends beauti¬ 
ful was when the lack of beauty of face came 
from lack of beauty in mind and soul. It 
was a task indeed to tell a girl that she was 
envious in disposition, and that the lines 
of her face or the expression of her eyes 
showed it. 

The sharp bitter tongue! It was worse 
to treat than a bodily disease. 

Margaret was the one who needed this 
particular talk on health' and beauty, yet 
how to reach her. That was the question. 
She was tall, with a physique as slender 
and graceful as a sapling; a mass of black 
hair which she had hanging in two long 
braids far below her waist. Her eyes were 
big and gray — yet the expression was un¬ 
pleasant. 


95 


96 


THE GIRL BEAUTIFUL 


Miss Jane began her talk one day with 
“ Real beauty is like real happiness. It 
must come from within. There are weeds 
in our dispositions as well as flowers and 
fruits. Now, a good gardener cultivates the 
last and destroys the first. Surely, a char¬ 
acter is a greater thing than a garden. 
Then if we have any sense of responsibility, 
we should destroy every ugly disagreeable 
trait in our makeup, and cultivate the good 
things.” 

“ Perhaps we are just as blind to traits 
in ourselves as we were to faults in our 
physical make-up,” said Ethel. “We may 
be blind to our own faults.” 

“ We generally are,” said Miss Jane. 
“ This blindness is a universal fault. We 
are very keen when it comes to seeing the 
faults in others. To-day, I wish to speak 
of the lack of grace within which shows in 
our faces. 

“ The world is a beautiful place if we look 
at it from the right point. Life is wonder¬ 
ful. Here we are — put into this world 
without any wish or volition of our own — 
to do something for the world, and then pass 
away,— ourselves to be forgotten, but the 


THE UNRULY MEMBER 


97 


influence of our lives to go rolling on for 
ages. It is majestic — this living. There 
is nothing to fear for those who try to live 
right. Everything works out for good 
eventually, as long as we live honestly and 
well. 

“ This is all a prelude to tell you that 
being ‘ blue’ or depressed in spirits is wrong, 
It shows lack of faith. Depression is a 
mental habit. When once we let ourselves 
form such a habit, it is very difficult to break 
it. The better way is never to give way to 
being ‘ blue/ But if you have formed the 
habit break yourself of it at once. The in¬ 
stant the feeling comes upon you say to 
yourself, ‘ God’s in His heaven. All’s right 
with the world.’ Then get at some work. 
Anything, so that you will be busy. Sweep, 
cook, paint, crochet! Just get to work and 
keep busy. 

“What has this to do with physical 
beauty? A great deal, my dear girls. It 
has a great deal to do with health, too. The 
instant one lets herself become depressed, 
her shoulders sink, her cheek droops, her 
head falls forward. The digestive juices 
become sluggish. Sometimes even the nor- 


98 


THE GIRL BEAUTIFUL 


mal perspiration is checked. The muscles 
of the face sag. The lines about the corners 
of the mouth and eyes curve down instead 
of up. The eye itself loses its sparkle. A 
person in such a mental state loses much 
individual power. 4 Blues’ are a sign of 
weakness; unconsciously, we realize weak¬ 
ness, and the power of the weak person with 
her fellow-beings is weakened. 

“ Have you ever observed girls taking a 
little credit to themselves for being ‘ blue ’ ? ” 

Helen blushed. She had done that very 
thing. Indeed she had often entertained 
her boy and girl friends in the high school 
by telling them how blue she had been or 
was. She looked up at Miss Jane and nod¬ 
ded. 

“ They will not find it necessary to go 
beyond this club to find just such a girl,” 
she said. 

“You will overcome that if you bear in 
mind that mental depression is weakness, 
and in an exaggerated form, insanity/’ said 
Miss Jane. 

“ It will cure me just to remember that it 
spoils my looks,” said Marie. “ My vanity 
is my strongest point.” 


THE UNRULY MEMBER 


99 


The girls laughed at this. 

“ There are other feelings which directly 
influence the facial expression and make it 
either lovable or repellant. Envy is one of 
them. All these unpleasant feelings are 
like boomerangs which come back to destroy 
the one who sent them forth. 

“ Let us consider this. Here is a young 
girl — of fifteen — splendid in health, aver¬ 
age in mind and looks, yet she will make 
herself miserable when some other girl 
makes more friends, is more popular, has 
a more becoming dress. This envious one 
generally withdraws herself and the 
‘ scowls ’ in her heart soon show on her face. 
A certain grace has gone from her which 
will not return until she has driven envy 
from her heart.” 

“ Can it be done? ” asked Margaret. The 
question showed Miss Jane that this girl was 
conscious of her own fault. So the first 
step was taken. 

“ Yes; it can be overcome, but it will not 
be easy. Margaret, did you ever consider 
how long it has taken for you to learn to 
read?” Everyone smiled. “ Six years — 
ten months — a year,” said Miss Jane. 


100 THE GIRL BEAUTIFUL 


“ Yon kept right at it until you succeeded. 
If you would make the same strenuous ef¬ 
forts with any habit or fault, you would dis¬ 
cover that it would succumb.” 

“ But,” Miss Jane continued after a pause, 
“ I am sure that so long a term will not be 
necessary. If you honestly desire to over¬ 
come a fault, you can do so and within a rea¬ 
sonably short time. Here I think one’s wit 
and sense of humor may help. If you can 
laugh when blue or see the humorous side of 
a human mind letting itself fall into the 
slough of despair because of some trivial ma¬ 
terial thing, you can save yourself. 

“ If envious feelings come, force yourself 
to say something kind of the person whom 
you envy. Put good feelings into words. 
Perhaps you girls have heard that the char¬ 
acter is weakened if we idealize, think good 
thoughts, resolve, and do not immediately 
follow with action. So when, some day, 
you find envy filling your heart and you 
cry out to yourself, ‘I do not wish to be 
envious/ then say a kind word, do a kind 
act, however simple, toward her whom you 
are envying. 

“ It’s like pulling up burdock by the root 


THE UNRULY MEMBER 101 


and planting clover. Yon cannot see it 
when yon drop the clover seed, but it will not 
be long until the bees are sipping honey 
there.” 

“ You do have the nicest figures of 
speech,” said Myra, and then she added by 
way of explanation, “We had lessons in 
rhetoric last year.” 

“ But, Miss Jane,” it was Louise who 
spoke, “did you not tell us that there 
was generally a cause for everything? 
Then what causes the ‘ blues ’ ? ” 

The girls laughed, and Miss Jane joined 
with them. “ I wish I could tell you all the 
causes and cures. Indigestion and a torpid 
liver are sometimes the cause. But we have 
learned partly how to overcome that. A 
healthy condition of body is always best 
for the mind. That is true. You girls are 
using intelligent means to keep your bodies 
in health, so you will not suffer from the 
blues because of it. 

“ Then, some have a tendency toward 
mental depression, just as some have a 
tendency toward taking life gayly. Why 
such tendencies exist, physicians cannot de¬ 
cide. It is enough now to know if you your- 


102 THE GIRL BEAUTIFUL 


self are a creature of moods. Learn 
wherein you are weak, and get rid of the 
weakness.” 

“ Miss Jane, you were a stranger to us 
two months ago. You did not know any 
of our peculiarities. You have learned to 
know us since. No doubt, you see our 
faults even more clearly than members of 
our own family. Could you tell us, each 
one individually, where we might improve 
in disposition and character, just as you 
have been telling us how to improve physi¬ 
cally? The beauty I want is the beauty that 
shows in mind and soul, as well as physical 
beauty.” It was Erma who spoke. She was 
very earnest. She had within her a mind 
to grasp big ideas, and her faith in things 
eternal had already left its mark upon her. 

“Yes; I can do that,” said Miss Jane. 
“ I will speak to each girl alone if she comes 
to me and asks that I point out to her the 
weeds in her own particular garden, and 
ask me to help do the weeding. 

“ But such talks are too sacred for all to 
hear. They must be only between the one 
who needs help and her who can give the 
help,” said Miss Jane, 


CHAPTER XIII 


RESTLESS HANDS 

6 6 T T AYE you ever made a study of 

JLjL hands?” began Miss Jane one day 
when the girls had gathered on her living 
porch. They looked up surprised. 

“ Do you mean palmistry? ” asked Bertie. 

“No; not palmistry,” said Miss Jane. 
“ Just hands in general. I have been 
studying the hands of you girls as you sat 
there. There are eight girls. Only two of 
them had their hands in repose. Do you 
realize what a vast amount of energy you 
have wasted? f When you rest, rest, and 
when you work, work/ is a good principle to 
go upon.” 

“ My hands are resting,” said Bertie. “ I 
had them holding the arm of the chair. So 
I knew that they were not moving.” 

“They were quiet, but I could not say 
that they were resting,” said Miss Jane. 
“You held the arms of your chair in a 
103 


104 THE GIRL BEAUTIFUL 


strong grip. The muscles of your arms and 
hands were at a tension. There was no re¬ 
laxation— and no rest. You must bring 
your muscles into such control that you can 
at will let them relax or become tense and 
rigid. What would you think of an engi¬ 
neer who would keep on a full head of 
steam while his engine was in the stall in 
the round-house? ” 

“ It would certainly be a waste of steam,” 
said Alice. “ Very expensive too. Do you 
know that is one of the tests of a fine engi¬ 
neer to be able to gauge his power and al¬ 
ways use just enough, but no more? ” 

“ I wish we could all be as wise in con¬ 
cerning our physical and mental forces,” 
said Miss Jane. “ Not to let them rust or 
lie idle, to be sure, but when they have done 
their legitimate amount of work, let them 
rest. Have you ever observed a healthy 
normal child about two or three years old? 
They will run about and play until they are 
tired, and then fall asleep. Every muscle 
will relax. Even the muscles of the face 
seem to lose expression.” 

“ I wish I could relax,” said Olive. 
“ When I go to bed at night, my mind is 


RESTLESS HANDS 


105 


working like a buzz-saw, and often I will 
wake in the night with the most horrible 
feelings.” 

“ You can train yourself out of that. 
By pure force of will you may put the wor¬ 
ries and cares away from you at bed time. 
You know psychologists teach that beneath 
the conscious self, which we and our friends 
know, there is a sub-conscious self; that is, 
there is an ‘ I’ which lies far beneath the 
surface. This sub-conscious * I’ is sensi¬ 
tive at certain times and under certain con¬ 
ditions, and the impressions which it re¬ 
ceives eventually control our conscious self 
— that is our action and speech.” 

Alice sighed. “ That sounds well, but I 
am afraid it is too deep for me. I never 
was able to understand science.” 

“ Perhaps,” said Miss Jane, with a smile, 
“ you did not understand it because it was 
called i science.’ If you had been told it 
was just nature, you would have liked it 
better. Science is but the laws which God 
instituted from the beginning of the world. 
We are just learning to read them. So let 
us say we are studying the laws which He 
instituted in the normal mind. 


106 THE GIRL BEAUTIFUL 


“ When this physical body, and the con¬ 
scious mind, is much fatigued, or about 
losing itself in sleep, the sub-conscious self 
receives its impressions. This is the time 
to train it. When you lie down, turn your 
thoughts toward beautiful things. If you 
like music, try to imagine that deep in the 
stillness of the night you hear the beauti¬ 
ful tones of a violin or organ; or close your 
eyes and imagine that you are plucking 
roses from the garden. If you are dis¬ 
tressed about the future, keep repeating to 
yourself, ‘ God’s in His heaven — all’s right 
with the world.’ ” 

“ Does it really influence one? ” cried 
Mollie. “ Or it is just theory? ” 

“ It really does. All trained teachers use 
the same principle in their work. All 
nurses who deal with depressed or slightly 
insane people. I know a mother who had 
been a specialist in child-study. She had 
taught in kindergarten. Her first-born was 
not normal. She never allowed a servant 
to put him to sleep. But as she rocked him 
in her arms she would sing, ‘ Mother’s boy 
is a good boy. He will do as mother tells 


RESTLESS HANDS 


107 


him.’ Then as he grew older and showed 
tendency of cruelty toward his little sister, 
she would sit beside him and say, ‘ To-mor¬ 
row, Harris will be good. He will play with 
his little sister. He will love his little sis¬ 
ter/ 

“ He was then eight years old when I saw 
him last,” continued Miss Jane. “ He kept 
telling me, ‘ Harris is good; Harris loves his 
sister; Harris does as mother wishes/ The 
mother, by mental suggestion, had put the 
thought there. It was all the child had 
in his mind, but it saved him from being 
brutal and disobedient.” 

“ I had no idea that there were such 
studies,” said Helen. “ Do you think it will 
really help us? ” 

“ It will help your mind and body, and as 
I have told you many times before, you 
beautify yourself along the finest ideals 
when you raise your physical, mental and 
spiritual standard. Why, a teacher in the 
primary grade will not say to a child, ‘ Mary, 
do not make so much noise? * She will give 
Mary some work to turn her energy in the 
right channel. The teacher will not say, 


108 THE GIRL BEAUTIFUL 


i Never tell a lie ’ — but ‘ Always tell the 
truth.’ So that the thought of truth will 
rest in the conscious self.” 

“ How can we apply the principle?” 
asked Mildred. 

“ It is not difficult. Let us presume that 
one of you has a little inclination toward 
forebodings. Let her always repeat, as she 
falls asleep, some such expression as, ‘ To¬ 
morrow will be a busy happy day. To-mor¬ 
row will be a busy happy day.’ If one is 
selfish, let her keep always before her this 
thought, ‘ I will be unselfish. I will give 
freely of my time and energy. I will be 
unselfish.’ If she is unkind in her way of 
speaking, let her say, ‘ I will say kind 
things; I will speak kindly.’ You may 
smile at it, but in the course of several weeks 
that girl will find that kind speech comes in¬ 
voluntarily to her lips.” 

“ Isn’t this rather a new idea,” asked Isa¬ 
belle. “ A new science or something of that 
kind? ” 

“ Old as the universe,” said Miss Jane. 
“ You know where one reads the words, ‘ As 
a man thinketh in his heart, so he is.’ 
That’s the same principle. Teachers and 


RESTLESS HANDS 


109 


educators are just learning that it is the 
vital principle in the development of char¬ 
acter. Think the thing you would be and 
gradually you will respond to your own 
ideas.” 

There was a pause for a few minutes, 
then Miss Jane turned to the girls with one 
of her rare smiles, “ I am afraid we wan¬ 
dered from our subject,” she said. “ I be¬ 
gan to talk of repose and relaxation, and 
left it without saying anything definite. 

“ Have you ever studied yourself when 
you were riding in an automobile or carri¬ 
age? You will have your feet pressed 
against the floor, and the muscles of your 
limbs will be tense. It is the same way 
when one first rides a bicycle. The hands 
will grasp the handle-bars with such force 
that one would think they must be pried 
loose. A great Health and Beauty teacher 
once gave her class this exercise. Sit in 
a lazy chair, let the feet slide forward, the 
shoulders sink, the arms let go their tense¬ 
ness, the jaw fall. Just let go for a few 
minutes whenever the rush of life has keyed 
us up. She had so trained herself that she 
could ‘ let loose ’ her muscles and nerves 


110 THE GIRL BEAUTIFUL 


and fall sound asleep in five minutes, and 
then awake ready for work, but with re¬ 
newed energy. She was a woman of sixty 
years, but she had the suppleness of a 
woman of thirty. The muscles of her face 
and neck were soft. There were no heavy 
strained cords in the neck. 

“ Now, about the restless hands. Let 
them rest on your chair or in your lap with¬ 
out a continuous moving. The restlessness 
always betokens nervousness or a perturbed 
mind. I think I told you once that a great 
actor, wishing to show that the character 
he was portraying was disturbed in mind, 
let his hands fumble ceaselessly over the 
articles on a desk. 

“ Sometimes this is habit — a most annoy¬ 
ing habit for those who must be in the pres¬ 
ence of a restless person. I have observed 
girls toy with a fan, work with a locket or 
watch-fob until everyone about them was 
uneasy.” 

“ I do not do that,” said Eva, “ but I do 
tap and tap with my foot.” 

“ All a waste of energy,” said Miss Jane. 
“ Let your body be in repose. Store up the 
energy for work instead of dissipating it 


RESTLESS HANDS 


111 


in tapping with the foot, or restless moving 
of the hands. Some American writer has 
said that ‘ Stillness of person, and repose of 
manner are signal marks of good-breed¬ 
ing.’ ” 

Miss Jane smiled — a rare smile which 
radiated from her eyes instead of the mus¬ 
cles of her face. “ I intended to tell you 
how to keep your hands in good condition. 
I must leave that for another time. I wish 
to tell you also how the ‘ Health and 
Beauty’ lecturer dressed. I shall have 
these subjects for another talk.” 


CHAPTER XIV 


BEAUTIFUL NAILS 

i ‘CJ^VERAL days ago,” said Miss Jane, 
“ I asked you if yon ever studied 
1 hands.’ We express so much by them. 
There’s the artist’s hand with its soft palm 
and long slender fingers, and the executive 
hand with broad hard palm and thick fin¬ 
gers. We cannot make over our hands, 
but we can keep them in good condition. 
Let us to-day study the individual hand.” 

The girls stretched out their hands before 
them, and then sat and waited. They 
smiled meanwhile as they wondered what 
Miss Jane would tell them. Instead of be¬ 
ginning a talk, Miss Jane said, “ I wish you 
would each tell me her own particular prob¬ 
lem in regard to her hands.” 

“Mine get very rough in winter,” said 
Ruth. “While I was in the high school 
last winter I washed the dishes once a day. 
My hands were rough and chapped most of 
112 


BEAUTIFUL NAILS 


113 


the time, although I wore gloves whenever 
I went out.” 

“ Were you careful to dry your hands 
thoroughly? ” asked Miss Jane. “ So often 
the kitchen towels are coarse linen which 
do not readily absorb the moisture. Have 
a soft towel — one which has been washed 
until it is all soft and pliable. Then do 
not rub the hands. Pat them dry, but be 
quite sure that they are dry. 

“ Then before going to bed rub in oil of 
some sort. A great many skins can not 
bear glycerine, vaseline is generally too 
heavy, unless you can heat it. But if your 
hands are already chapped badly, vaseline 
warmed until it becomes a liquid is excellent. 
Bathe the hands in this and rub in thor¬ 
oughly. Let the skin soak in as much as 
it can. Then dry on a soft towel. Do not 
wash off. If you are afraid of soiling the 
bed-linen with the oily hands, slip on a pair 
of large gloves. 

“ Cold cream is excellent, if used before 
the hands get in a bad condition. Drying 
the hands thoroughly before going out, and 
using a good oil at night is splendid to keep 
them soft,” 


114 THE GIRL BEAUTIFUL 


“ My grandmother used to render out 
sheep’s tallow/’ said Amelia. 

“ It is softening and gives the flesh a firm¬ 
ness which is very pleasing/’ said Miss Jane. 
“ The disadvantage about it is that it gives 
a yellow tinge to the skin.” 

“ As you know/’ said Ruth, “ my home is 
just outside the borough limits. We have 
an artesian well. The water is ‘ hard.’ Not 
so hard as some we find in the Middle West, 
yet it is not good for the hands. Sometimes, 
when the cistern water is low, I must use 
it.” 

“ Use a little powdered borax in the 
water. This is excellent whether the 
water is hard or soft. Borax whitens and 
softens. It will be excellent in the bath. 
Sometimes when you wish to wash out fine 
shirtwaists, use borax instead of soap. It 
will have a good effect on the hands as well 
as on the fabric.” 

“ When I pare fruit or work with vege¬ 
tables, I stain my hands. The stain will 
not be deep, but yet enough to be observed 
and to give my hands a careless appear¬ 
ance.” It was Alice who brought up this 
difficulty. 


BEAUTIFUL NAILS 


115 


“ If you can pare potatoes without put¬ 
ting water on them, this will rid you of 
potato stain. A fine scouring soap, almost 
as fine as that one would use on silver, will 
remove ink stains, tar and ones of that 
order. A small cake of this should be in 
the kitchen; also a lemon or a little acid 
vinegar. Cut the lemon in two, and rub 
over the hands before washing. This will 
remove berry stains. If lemons are not at 
hand, washing them in acid vinegar will 
accomplish the same end. But this should 
be attended to as soon as one is through 
with her task.” 

“ I think I collect dirt under my nails. 
If I have been helping with the housework, 
the cuticle under the nail becomes tender, 
and the dirt collects there and roughens. 
I find it very difficult to keep my nails 
clean,” said Beth. 

“ Before trying to clean them with an 
orange-stick,” said Miss Jane, “ take cold 
cream or vaseline and fill the nails with it. 
Let it remain a half-hour or more, if it is 
convenient. Then wash the hands in warm, 
but "not hot, water and a mild soap. Then 
with a little cotton on the end of an orange- 


116 THE GIRL BEAUTIFUL 


stick clean under the nails. It would be 
wise to have oil on the cotton. This will re¬ 
move dirt without irritating the skin. In¬ 
deed, it will heal instead. 

“ After this is done, with a second piece 
of cotton, which has been saturated in onga- 
line, go under and all about the nails to 
remove stain or grimy appearance.” 

“What is ongaline?” asked Helen. 

“ It is a bleach used for nails and hands. 
It may cost quite a little sum, but it will 
last several years with care. It is best used 
for removing stains from under the nails,” 
said Miss Jane. 

“ My hands burn after they are in water 
and smart most unpleasantly,” said Effie. 
“ They are really uncomfortable.” 

“ You use too strong soap,” Miss Jane re¬ 
plied. “ Dishwashing and the average laun¬ 
dry work does not require strong soaps. It 
is the alkali in these which acts upon the 
skin and causes burning. If you feel that 
you must use that kind of soap, then use 
vinegar or lemon to counteract the effect.” 

In the meanwhile Mabelle was sitting 
with her hand laid flat on the table, palm 
down. Her hands were excessively mani- 


BEAUTIFUL NAILS 


117 


cured. The nails were pointed. Rosaline 
had given a red tinge to the body of the 
nail. She had quite a self-satisfied expres¬ 
sion as she awaited Miss Jane’s verdict. 
Mabelle was well pleased with her hands. 

“ How are mine, dear Miss Jane? ” she 
asked at length. 

“ Too extreme,” was the reply. “ I 
should call it ‘ bad taste ’ in manicuring.” 
She smiled as she spoke. No one ever felt 
hurt at Miss Jane’s remarks. There was 
something in the personality of the woman 
which disarmed all unpleasant feeling. 
Taking up Mabelle’s hand in her own, she 
continued. “ The nails should be curved 
like a half-moon. The long points are a 
fad in manicuring. They are not in good 
taste. The nail should be long enough to 
protect the finger. Pianists and stenogra¬ 
phers manicure nails very short because 
long nails interfere with the strike on the 
keys. I think, too, Mabelle, you color them 
too deeply. After the bath, it is well and 
proper to use some tinted powder on the 
nails and polish with a buffer. But you 
have yours so highly colored that they are 
noticeable.” 


118 THE GIRL BEAUTIFUL 


Mabelle’s face flushed. “ I thought I was 
in the latest style,” she said. 

“ You may be,” said Miss Jane, “ but 
style is not the fashion which we wish to 
follow. We want health, good taste and 
beauty. We can have none of these things 
until we have common sense.” 

“ I always manicure my nails after my 
bath. Is that the proper time?” asked 
Bertha. 

“ Yes; the cuticle about the nail has been 
well softened and has been made more pli¬ 
able. Professional manicurists have a small 
basin of luke-warm water, with either bak¬ 
ing-soda or borax as a softener. They have 
their customers hold the finger tips in this 
before the work is begun. The first thing 
to do is to push back the cuticle at the 
roots of the nail. Try to have a little half¬ 
moon of white show, if possible.” 

“ What is the best way of doing this? ” 

“ Use an orange stick. One end is curved 
for that purpose. Generally one can get 
two sticks for five cents. Push back the 
cuticle. Then with a bit of Red-cross cot¬ 
ton clean all about the nails with peroxide 


BEAUTIFUL NAILS 


119 


of hydrogen. This will remove stain, act as 
a bleach, and is a disinfectant. 

“As to cutting or filing the nails mani¬ 
curists differ. About the edge of the nails 
a file had better be used. If one attends 
to these matters herself, she will find that 
it is impossible to use the scissors on her 
own right hand. 

“ After the nails have been shaped a little 
tinted powder may be dropped on each nail 
and polished with a ‘ buffer.’ If one does 
not have this, which is only a little bit of 
the chamois padded on a small bit of wood, 
use a piece of chamois. 

“ We cannot change the shape of our 
hands, but we can keep them immaculate. 
Clean hands and nails are not only more 
sightly, but they are more sanitary. 

“ You remember the old Israelites were 
compelled by their religious rites to wash 
their hands before partaking of food.” 

Miss Jane smiled, and then added, 
“ There’s something very peculiar about all 
these hygienic laws of which we are so 
proud; we find the vital principles away 
back in the Old Testament.” 


CHAPTER XV 


FEARLESS EYES 

M ARIE came hurrying up the street, 
her muscles were tense, the lines on 
her face drawn. She hurried up the steps 
and sank into the first chair on the porch, 
letting her parasol drop from her hand as 
she sank down. It was some minutes be¬ 
fore she could speak in her normal tones. 
While she tried to get her breath, she 
mopped the drops of perspiration from her 
brow. 

“ I was afraid I should be late, and I 
hurried as fast as I could.” After she had 
composed herself the talk began. 

Miss Jane smiled when she began her 
talk. “ I am going to digress for a time/’ 
she said. “ I shall not give you just the 
talk which I had planned. Marie has given 
me a memory of something which I experi¬ 
enced when I was her age. I was at a sum¬ 
mer resort,— one of those intellectual ones 
120 


FEARLESS EYES 


121 


where lectures and fine music are the attrac¬ 
tion. One morning, as I was hurrying 
along the street with my head far in advance 
of my heels, my body bent, and my breath 
labored, a very handsome woman spoke to 
me and touched me lightly on the arm. I 
looked up. It was Mrs. Rolands, who gave 
the health and beauty talks. 

“ i Wait just a minute/ she said. I 
waited. After a moment she asked, ‘ Is it 
a matter of life or death whether you reach 
the cottage now or three minutes later? ’ 

“ ‘ Oh, no/ I exclaimed. ‘ I was just 
curious to see if the maid had come.’ 

“ ‘ Then take five minutes more before 
satisfying your curiosity/ she said. ‘ You 
are wasting your energy, harming your 
health and spoiling your appearance by 
this unnecessary and unlovely mad rush.’ 

“ I have thought about the matter very 
often,” continued Miss Jane. “ I wish you 
girls would consider it too. How many 
times have you seen women rush across the 
street ahead of a car and then stop to re¬ 
cover when they had reached the curb. 
How many times have you raced madly for 
one car when you knew that a second one 


122 THE GIEL BEAUTIFUL 


would pass that same corner in three min¬ 
utes? 

“You can not hope to gain beauty or 
carriage, or figure, if you permit the mus¬ 
cles and nerves to indulge in such experi¬ 
ences.” 

“ But, sometimes one must hurry — as at 
times when there is only one express train 
and it is about ready to pull out.” 

Miss Jane smiled. “ Then hurry, but 
these times are rare. How many times in 
your life have you had to run to catch an 
express? ” 

“ Never,” laughed Marie. “ I was just 
supposing a case.” 

“ While we are on this matter of running 
and walking,” said Miss Jane, “ let me em¬ 
phasize again the foot-wear. As you all 
know, fashion dictates some very peculiar 
and inartistic styles. I think the most un¬ 
attractive is in the ‘ loud foot-wear.’ Shoes 
of peculiar make and style always call at¬ 
tention to the feet,— plain, well-made and 
well-shaped shoes are the best kind of dress¬ 
ing. 

“ Of course, I need not mention run-over 
heels. A girl with a sense of health values 


FEARLESS EYES 


123 


comfort and looks and will never wear them. 

“ The best dressing is suitable dressing — 
the article in harmony with the occasion 
at which it is worn. A shoe for an even¬ 
ing at home, or one fitted to go with a soft 
white gown at a dinner party was never 
intended for either street wear or country 
hikes. 

“ Nothing shows as bad taste and lack of 
proper proportion as French heels and thin 
soles for street wear, or an evening slipper 
with a tailor-made gown. You would all 
look amused, at least, if you’d see a man 
wear a high silk hat, and a rough business 
suit, or a full evening dress and tan shoes; 
yet I have seen women dress with articles 
as much at variance as that,” 

Ethel’s eyes danced. “ I wear my old 
satin slippers out at home in the mornings,” 
she confessed. “ Some mornings I’ll be 
dusting or sweeping a room and I’ll be wear¬ 
ing pink satin slippers.” 

“ How do you feel when you are through 
with the work? ” asked Miss Jane. 

“ Tired to death. My back hurts; the 
muscles in the calves of my legs ache, and 
my nerves are all on the ragged edge.” 


124 THE GIRL BEAUTIFUL 


“ Miss Jane/ 7 said little Nellie Shepherd, 
looking up, “ I wish you’d tell me one 
thing. Since you have been here, I’ve heard 
so many people speak of your eyes. I do 
not know that any one remarked that they 
were beautiful or pretty, but I have heard, 
time and time again, the expression, ‘ Won¬ 
derful. 7 How can one make eyes ‘ wonder¬ 
ful 7 ? 77 

“ I do not know that one can change the 
shape or color, but I do know that she can 
make the eyebrow and eyelash beautiful, and 
that she can have a clear eye with an ex¬ 
pression of strength and purity, if not of 
absolute beauty. 

“ My eyes are not remarkable. They are 
just the average blue or gray which one gen¬ 
erally inherits from Scotch-Irish ancestry. 
Before I was twenty I realized that some¬ 
thing was lacking. The brow T s were thin 
and the lashes short. I began to use a com¬ 
mon remedy. I purchased a few cents 
worth of cocoanut butter at a drug-store. 
It is hard unless heat is applied. I had a 
little square piece, perhaps three inches 
square. I am sure I paid no more than 
five cents for it. I bought also a little 


FEARLESS EYES 


125 


cameLs-hair brush. At night, I would hold 
the butter oyer the lamp — we used lamps 
in those days — dipped the brush in the 
melting butter and rubbed it in the eye-brow, 
brushing and curving it in the way I wished 
it to grow. I did the same thing with the 
eye-lash. It did not matter if the butter 
did get into my eye. There was nothing 
in it which would injure the eye.” 

“ Did it make them like they are now? ” 
asked Alice. 

“ Yes; it was six months perhaps before 
I realized that there was a change, although 
I never failed to make the application each 
evening. I continued it for a year; then 
the brow and lashes were as I desired them. 
But now and then I rub oil in,— sometimes 
a little vaseline, or cold cream,— not to 
make them grow, but to keep the hairs 
smooth and soft.” 

“ That perhaps made the lashes beautiful,” 
said Ruth, “ but I have long lashes, and yet 
no one remarks about my ‘ wonderful eyes.’ 
Why is that, Miss Jane? Do not be afraid 
to tell me. I’ve long since made up my 
mind to improve, although I must take a 
number of bitter doses.” 


126 THE GIRL BEAUTIFUL 


“ One thing,” said Miss Jane, “ you let 
your lids droop. You rarely, if ever, look 
directly at a person. Your lids droop. As 
I am looking at you now, I do not see your 
eyes at all. I see only the lower part of 
the pupil.” 

“ Is that true? ” exclaimed Alice, looking 
up suddenly. The girls laughed and ex¬ 
claimed aloud, for in her excitement and 
surprise, she had suddenly lifted her lashes, 
displaying full round eyes, expressive of 
feeling. 

“ The girls can see that you have illus¬ 
trated the point that I wished to make,” said 
Miss Jane. “ But you must he careful in 
this particular. In making an effort not 
to let your lids droop, you may go to the 
other extreme and force the lids too high 
and give a staring unpleasant expression 
to the face.” 

“ I will study myself a little,” said Ruth, 
“ and make the most of these eyes.” 

“ There’s yet another idea,” said Miss 
Jane. “A back-biter, a scandal-monger, a 
liar, a person of impure thoughts can never 
have beautiful eyes. Everywhere is it true 
that beauty must come from within. It is 


FEARLESS EYES 


127 


very strange, that a peculiar expression will 
come into the eyes of one who is not telling 
the truth, and if you look directly at him 
he will let his eyes falter and at last turn 
aside. 

“ I think one of the most pitiable scenes 
I ever witnessed was on the subject of eyes. 
A few years ago, 1 visited an asylum in 
company with a woman physician. There 
was a young girl of eighteen, sitting at the 
window, peeping from between her fingers. 
The physician asked me to talk with her 
to see if I could make her remove her fingers. 
I talked for some time, all the while she 
held her hand against her eyes. 

“ ‘ Look at me, please/ I said. ‘ I wish 
to see if you have brown eyes or blue eyes.’ 

“ ‘ I will never let any one see my eyes/ 
she said. I leaned toward her and asked 
in a confidential tone why she would not. 

“ ‘ Because people would know what I 
thought if they once saw my eyes/ she said. 

“ Later I asked the woman physician the 
cause of the girl's insanity. i She gave her¬ 
self up to evil-thought imaginings, and her 
mind was affected.’ ” 

Miss Jane’s voice trembled when she told 


128 THE GIEL BEAUTIFUL 


the story. The case had been a pitiable one 
to her, and had left its impression strong 
upon her. 

“ We may be thankful that beautiful 
thoughts shine forth in the same way,” she 
began again in a more cheerful voice. “ All 
the beautiful thoughts we think, the poems 
we read and which leave their impress on 
our minds, all reflect from our eyes. Noth¬ 
ing shows character more than the eye. 
The coward, the traitor, all fear to look 
the world in the face, and they droop their 
heads and turn aside.” 

“ I think,” Miss Jane spoke softly and 
with a great deal of feeling. “ I think 
your telling me that I have ‘ wonderful ’ 
eyes is the greatest compliment that I have 
ever had. I take a great deal of credit to 
myself for their fearlessness and for their 
expression; for when I was a young woman 
I determined that I would do no act or think 
no thought that would make me ashamed 
before the world. I am not afraid, so my 
eyes are fearless. I have done all that I 
could to put into my mind only noble 
thoughts, beautiful poems, inspiring music, 
and they are reflected in my eyes.” 


CHAPTER XYI 


EYES AND NO EYES 

< }I7 HAT a ^ont being near-sighted, or 
V V having weak eyes, Miss Jane? Is 
there anything we can do for them? ” 

“ Go to an oculist,” replied Miss Jane, 
“ and go to a good one. This is where 
economy consists in getting the best in the 
market. A specialist only should care for 
the eyes.” 

“ I am thankful that I have good eyes,” 
said Rose. “ I can read with a book a yard 
away. Yesterday I was up in the back 
room on our third floor, and I could read 
the time on the town clock. You know how 
far away that is.” 

The girls expressed their surprise and 
admiration. 

“You have such large pupils too,” said 
Ruth. “ I have often noticed how brilliant 
your eyes became when you are excited.” 

129 


130 THE GIRL BEAUTIFUL 


“ Yes; I wish I were all around as perfect 
as my eyes,” said Rose. 

“Are you not all around good?” asked 
Miss Jane, with a smile. “ Every girl your 
age should be perfect physically.” 

“ I get perfectly awful sick headaches,” 
said Rose. “When I travel on a railroad 
train I always get car-sick; and lately when 
I go into a crowded store, and see people 
move about, I become nauseated.” 

“ My dear, those ‘ perfect ? eyes of yours 
are causing all the trouble. The brilliant 
and dilated pupils are beautiful, but they 
show a very bad condition of the eye. The 
fact that you can see so far means nothing 
at all. The nerves may be forcing you to 
see, and perhaps one eye is doing all the 
work. I knew of a similar case to yours. 
After the girl had had glasses fitted to her 
i perfect ’ eyes she never suffered from car¬ 
sickness and was quite as good a traveler as 
others of us.” 

“ You would advise my seeing a special¬ 
ist?” 

“ I surely would. You may be sure of 
one thing,” continued Miss Jane. “ Young 
women have no aches and pains if they are 


EYES AND NO EYES 


131 


normal. When violent headaches continue, 
when car-sickness is the result of every trip; 
if the automobile ride leaves you with a 
dizzy dazed feeling, there is something not 
quite normal. The nerves are rebelling. 
If you are wise you will attend to it. It 
may be some slight affair — food which is 
not digested, lack of proper movement of 
the bowels, some constricted muscle or a 
nervous strain on the eyes. It is your right 
to be normal and healthy, and it is your 
duty to demand and keep your rights.” 

“ That last sounds like a woman’s suf¬ 
frage talk,” said Carrie. 

“ I believe in all rights for women,” said 
Miss Jane, “ but just now I am emphasizing 
her right to be well.” 

“ To return to the eye,— pure mind, 
beautiful thoughts, fear no one, intellectual 
vigor are all back of the beautiful, the won¬ 
derful, the remarkable eye. 

“ I seem to be running two stories to-day. 
I know of a teacher, who, from her earliest 
teaching, had a remarkable control over 
wayward boys. ‘ It’s her clear steady eye,’ 
the superintendent of schools said. 

“ < It’s what is back of her eye,’ said the 


132 THE GIRL BEAUTIFUL 


principal, who worked with her and knew 
her better. 

“ When yon speak with a person look him 
in the eye. When you shake hands look di¬ 
rectly at the person, and do not shift your 
glance to the button of his coat, or his scarf- 
pin. Look him in the eye.” 

“ I think volumes might be written on 
this subject,” continued Miss Jane. “ Some 
one has spoken of the eye as the window of 
the soul. There was a time in my life when 
I thought too much emphasis was put on 
this. There was one incident when it was 
verified and I was strengthened in my be¬ 
lief. I was a young instructor in a co-edu- 
cational college. There were five hundred 
boys in the fraternities about town, and 
about two hundred girls in the dormitories. 
The young men were allowed to call twice 
a week in the big parlors, and talk with any 
of their girl friends. One night at a social 
function, the dean, a woman of very great 
experience, stood watching the guests. 

“‘ What is the name of the man talking 
to Miss Eldred? ’ she asked. 

“ i Mr. Farcaisling,’ I said. ‘ He’s a 
foreigner,’ 



EYES AND NO EYES 


133 


“ ‘ I wish yon would manage tactfully to 
keep him away from the Hall. I presume 
we cannot tell him not to come, but we can 
see to it that the girls do not become 
friendly. 

“ I looked my surprise. ‘ I do not like 
his eyes/ she explained. ( I hawe talked 
with him a number of times, but never have 
I been able to have him look at me. I could 
not catch his eye.’ I thought her extreme, 
but my place was to obey orders. I was 
thankful that I had done so, and that she 
had given me the suggestion, for later years 
proved that the young man was not and had 
never been a desirable acquaintance for the 
girls.” 

The girls were impressed. They felt that 
Miss Jane knew what she was talking about. 
For awhile they sat silent, each one doing 
a great deal of thinking meanwhile. In 
their minds they renewed many of their ac¬ 
quaintances and people they had met casu¬ 
ally. The drooping shifting eye was a 
marked characteristic of some,— the open 
clear countenance was that of others, and 
each was an index to the character of the 
person. 


134 THE GIRL BEAUTIFUL 


“What do yon think about night work, 
Miss Jane? ” asked Alice. 

“ Like a great many other things, it de¬ 
pends on under what conditions and circum¬ 
stances it is done. If a girl is physically 
worn out, she should not attempt fine needle 
work, or reading fine print. But night 
work, ordinarily, does not affect the eyes. 
The light should never fall directly upon 
the eye. The shade should be so arranged 
that the work is in light and the eye in 
shadow. That is the best condition for 
working with a lamp. But with a forty or 
sixty candle power electric, the reflected 
light from the work is- too strong and will 
tire the eyes if nothing worse. Reflected 
light is better in this- case; that is the bright 
light thrown against a wall or shield, and 
reflected on the work. 

“ A famous oculist declares that no 
woman, however fine her eyes are, can afford 
to do drawn-work, and that, however fine 
eyes appear to be, they should be examined 
at least every two years. If glasses are 
worn, they may rueed to be changed.” 

“ My father wore glasses when he was a 


EYES AND NO EYES 


135 


very young man. Now he is fifty, but he 
can see perfectly/’ said Marie. 

“ I’ve heard of such things/’ said Helen, 
“ but I never could understand how that 
could be.” 

“ Near-sighted people always have a 
round full eyeball,” said Miss Jane. “ So 
that the rays cross before they reach the 
retina,— glasses simply keep the light rays 
from focusing until they fall upon the 
sensitive plate and give the sight impression. 
As one grows older, the muscles in all parts 
of the body relax. A man often becomes 
shorter when past middle age. The eye-ball 
follows the general rule. It begins to flat¬ 
ten. Now, if it has been an eye which was 
too round, the flattening simply makes it 
a normal eye, and it can see without glasses 
at all. The so-called second sight in old 
people is because they have gone through 
life with an eye-ball abnormally shaped. 
When it becomes normal they see, and call 
it second sight, while the real facts are that 
it is their first ‘ real sight.’ ” 

“ I bathe my eyes in cold water when I 
come in tired. Is that good, Miss Jane? 


136 THE GIRL BEAUTIFUL 


It rests them, but I wondered if it was the 
proper thing to do.” 

“ Decidedly yes. I believe all physicians 
agree that cold water is harmless — to drink 
or to apply. But the use of hot applications 
is not to be encouraged. Never under any 
circumstances place a hot application, either 
hot water compress or poultice, about the 
eyes. You must bear in mind that the 
nerves of ear and eye are most sensitive, 
and no risk should be taken with them. 
Hot applications on the forehead for head¬ 
ache is not good for the eyes. 

“ I have known nervous people who suf¬ 
fered from contracted nerves and muscles 
at the base of the head, to apply a hot appli¬ 
cation or lie with a hot-water bag at the 
place of contraction. The base of the skull 
is another delicate part of the body. Here 
the spinal cord enters the spinal column, 
direct from the brain. There is a very small 
portion which is not protected by a bony 
wall. It is a delicate sensitive part. It is 
here that people of nervous temperament, 
when under excitement or fatigue, feel a 
contraction. 

“ Instead of applying heat here, they 


EYES AND .NO EYES 


137 


should apply it to the extremities,— a hot 
hath, and then going to bed with a hot-water 
bag at the feet will relieve the congested 
aching head more. The idea is to draw the 
blood from the head and nerves, where it has 
congested, and to send it circulating through 
the body, carrying with it impurities which 
the kidneys or the sweat glands will throw 
off. 

“ A person who has active physical work 
rarely gets such contracted nerves. People 
under a nervous strain, teachers, ministers, 
and a class of people who are working on 
nerve and brain are the sufferers. The 
blood always goes to that part of the body 
which is exercised most. When there is 
too much there, and blood vessels dilate, 
and press against the nerves, the sufferer 
feels a pressure, a contraction there. So 
the thing to be done is to draw the blood 
to some other portion of the body. 

“ A quick walk, or some physical work in 
the air is often the best medicine possible.” 

“What medicine would you advise for 
nervous people? ” asked Helen. 

“ Lots of medicine, but no drugs. Open- 
air sleeping, plain food regularly taken and 


138 THE GIRL BEAUTIFUL 


well masticated, physical exercise, eight 
hours sleep, no worry, a cheerful contented 
mind,— all are parts of the best nerve medi¬ 
cine known.” 


CHAPTER XVII 


GROWING BEAUTIFUL 

T HE Health and Beauty circle met at 
no regular time. Whenever a half 
dozen chanced to meet with Miss Jane on 
the porch of their homes, the girls asked 
all manner of questions and Miss Jane 
answered. The beauty of mind and soul 
was her theme always. She knew that as 
one cannot pour from an empty cup, so one 
cannot from an empty mind. There must 
be an impouring first. Sometimes one of 
the number read aloud a story or poem 
which would inspire or uplift, if it was 
only a beautiful melody of words, as in 
“ The Bells,” or where the thought was rug¬ 
ged and clean cut. From each one a new 
something was gained, which built up and 
strengthened. 

The girls were quite in earnest. They 
had set out to make the most of themselves 

139 


140 THE GIRL BEAUTIFUL 

and they did not intend that indolence or 
indisposition should hinder them. Some 
had cut hits from newspapers and maga¬ 
zines and pinned them on her pin cushion, 
or the edge of the mirror; anywhere where 
her eyes would fall upon them at intervals 
during each day. Each one knew her own 
particular need and she was drawn toward 
that sentiment which touched that need, 
and so all her clippings and quotations ran 
along the line of her own individuality. 

They were growing intense in their desire 
for advancement. This impressed Miss 
Jane strongly. One afternoon as they sat 
together she told them of a young man of 
whom she had heard some years before, and 
whose life she had followed for psychologi¬ 
cal reasons for the last ten years. 

“ When he was in college he had great 
temptations,” she said. “ He struggled 
against them, and then gave up when temp¬ 
tations came his way. Within his heart 
was an earnest desire to lead a moral up¬ 
right life, and yet he found himself too weak 
to follow it out. 

“ One day in a lecture in some special 
course in psychology, a certain theme was 


GROWING BEAUTIFUL 141 


touched upon. The principle of the thing 
was this, ‘ that too much concentration upon 
certain phases keeps them always before the 
mind and makes it susceptible of influence 
in the direction of those phases.’ 

“ The student was impressed. He knew 
that he had dwelt so much upon his own 
weakness that he was becoming fearful, 
losing his courage, and in danger of de¬ 
veloping an abnormal tendency of mind. 
To get his attention from himself was the 
first psychological thing to do. 

“ He began to work among younger stu¬ 
dents. He threw himself, heart and soul, 
into leading them to accept Christ; he 
brought them to Chapel. Every bit of his 
time and energy, beyond that spent in get¬ 
ting his lessons, was devoted to the saving 
of some younger man. 

“ His fervor was so great that himself and 
his own temptations sank in the back¬ 
ground. After three years of such efforts, 
he suddenly realized that he had not fallen 
in all that time, and if temptation had come 
his way he had been utterly oblivious to it.” 

Ruth looked up at Miss Jane with one of 
her sweet smiles, “ I know that that is 


142 THE GIRL BEAUTIFUL 


true,” she said. “ I wonder since I knew it 
that I did not put it into practice in my 
own life. I thank you for telling me, Miss 
Jane.” 

“ I think we shall all put it into practice 
in some way,” said Nellie Shepherd. 
“ Some with more natural ability than the 
others of us will accomplish the most. But 
we can all do something.” 

“ I do not understand what you mean,” 
said Bertha. “ Do what and accomplish 
what? ” 

“ Just what you are doing with your flow¬ 
ers,” said Helen. Bertha’s eyes lighted up. 

“ I’m not doing anything. It’s only a 
pleasure to raise them, and as to sending 
them around to people who have none,— 
why, that’s where I get the real fun out of 
it.” 

Her face was a study. While she talked 
her eyes had brightened, and her cheeks had 
flushed. An excited little thrill, which was 
quite attractive, had taken the place of her 
former dull monotonous tones. Eight 
weeks’ interest in something which had real 
beauty in it had done this for her. 

Gradually, the group of girls had elim- 


GROWING BEAUTIFUL 143 


inated scandal and gossip from the conver¬ 
sation. Little envious digs and shafts with 
which they had been used to hurt others had 
long since passed into oblivion. It was not 
that they had made an effort in this direc¬ 
tion, but it was merely a by-product of the 
following out of the directions for improv¬ 
ing themselves that the bitterness of tongue 
had passed. 

If a vessel is filled with oil and water is 
poured into it, the oil will gradually be 
forced out, so it was that the minds of the 
girls were being filled with weighty mat¬ 
ters which pushed all lighter things over¬ 
board. 

Nothing more was said of the matter then, 
yet it did not end. The girls were respon¬ 
sible enough that to give them a suggestion 
of what was right and proper, and they 
would go on with it themselves, 

A few days later Ruth spoke to the for¬ 
eign woman, who lived in the alley back of 
her home, and who washed for a living. 
“Mrs. Padiouski, will you let your little 
girl come over to my house each day? I 
should like to teach her how to live just like 
American women do.” 


144 THE GIRL BEAUTIFUL 


The little girl was ten. The work was not 
pleasant for Ruth, yet she made the child 
take baths and wash her hair and clean her 
teeth, until pride for these things was en¬ 
gendered in the child herself. 

In the meantime, Alice was, in her quiet 
way, helping all the younger girls who were 
from ten to fourteen years old. By tact¬ 
ful words, she kept them from sprawling on 
their chairs, hunching up their shoulders, 
letting their jaws drop and their mouths 
hang open. She told them how shoes run 
over at the heels hurt the back and the en¬ 
tire nervous system, in addition to spoiling 
the appearance of the foot. 

Perhaps it was not so much which they 
actually did, but they set the matter mov¬ 
ing. The younger girls began to talk of 
these matters. They were asking questions 
about the proper way to walk and sit. They 
were promulgating the idea that a woman’s 
and a girl’s duty is to be strong and good 
to look at. Wholesome is an excellent word 
for such a condition of affairs. 

Sometimes a single seed, borne by the 
wind or in the feathers of a bird, will be 
carried for miles and dropped upon some 


GROWING BEAUTIFUL 145 

fertile spot. It was much this way with the 
girls. They were scattering seeds here and 
there, and a great many sturdy plants 
sprang up from it. 

The weather had been extremely warm all 
summer. The people of the town had fallen 
into the habit of going about without hats. 
More than that, a great number did not 
even carry parasols or umbrellas of any 
sort. Before the end of the season, the re¬ 
sults showed, and the results were not pleas¬ 
ant to look upon. 

Margery coming in one day said to Miss 
Jane, “ Can you tell me what our next talk 
will be about? ” 

Miss Jane looked at the frowsy hair, with 
its faded streaks of light and dark. “ Yes, 
Miss Margery, I think I shall talk on ‘ No 
Hat and Its Due Results/ ” 


CHAPTER XVIII 


HATS AND HAIR 

M ISS JANE looked about the little 
group on the porch. It was now in 
September, and the summer had gone; but 
the air was yet balmy and delightful, and 
the porch was a most comfortable place to 
sit, while over the lawn the leaves were al¬ 
ready showing signs of fall, while the dis¬ 
tant mountain-tops had been touched with 
frost and showed crimson and yellow 
streaks among the green. 

Miss Jane looked at the group of girls. 
They were sitting correctly. Their hands 
were properly manicured; their bodies were 
in repose, their complexions were fine; but 
the hair, both in arrangement and care, or 
lack of care, detracted from the exquisite¬ 
ness of the picture which the group made. 

“ Girls, I am going to have the maid bring 
out a mirror and hang it here where the 
146 


HATS AND HAIR 


147 


light can play upon you. I wish each one 
of you would study herself for a few min¬ 
utes and see if you can discover where you 
lack in personal appearance. I do not mean 
in any physical formation, but in those 
things which are in your power to remedy.’’ 

The mirror was brought and hung so that 
the sun would play upon the head and 
shoulders of her who stood before it. 

Marie stood there first. She studied her¬ 
self for a few minutes. “ My hair has lost 
its yellow glow. It looks streaked over the 
top. I did not realize that the yellow that 
every one admired was disappearing.” She 
moved away. 

“ I’ll go next,” cried Alice. She gave one 
look. “ My hair looks so frowsy; but I have 
not been able to do one thing with it all this 
summer. It seems so brittle and stiff. It 
will not look smooth.” 

Margaret was the third to take her place 
before the mirror. “ I know what I shall 
see without looking. My hair has broken 
dreadfully, and the ends are split, I can¬ 
not understand it, I always had nice hair, 
and this summer I have given it quite as 
much care as ever before, but it is harsh 


148 THE GIRL BEAUTIFUL 


and so brittle that it breaks every time I 
draw a comb through it. It used to be 
such an even color,— all red brown, but now 
there’s every known shade in it.” 

Each girl, after she had looked in the 
mirror, had the same tale to tell. Her hair 
had become streaked, lost its luster, and 
was brittle and broken. 

“ The greater part of the trouble comes 
from going without a hat during the sum¬ 
mer,” said Miss Jane. “ How many times 
have you walked out in the boiling sun with¬ 
out a sunshade? You have spent all morn¬ 
ing in the tennis-court with your face pro¬ 
tected with cold cream and talcum, but your 
hair exposed to sun and wind. 

“ You girls know that a piece of linen laid 
in the sun will bleach white, and any woven 
material, however ‘ fast ’ the colors may be, 
will show the effect of the sun’s rays.” 

“ I know only too well,” said Millie. 
“ Last summer I had a little pink linen 
suit. I wore it one afternoon and came 
home to find that the linen across the shoul¬ 
ders, where the sun had beaten down hottest 
on me, was several times lighter. After a 
few wears the shoulders were white, while 


HATS AND HAIR 


149 


under the sleeves the linen was as pink as 
ever.” 

“ The same idea exactly,” said Miss Jane. 
“ Here is a girl with beautiful red-brown 
hair. She wears no hat all summer long, 
and the sun gradually bleaches the top. It 
will be in streaks because the same strand 
is not always exposed at the same angle. 
Those strands which have always been out 
will be lighter.” 

“ But what when you have yellow hair? ” 
asked Marie. 

“ The pigment in yellow hair or the pig¬ 
ment in the skin which produces the yellow 
hair is affected differently by the sun. 
When it plays upon some combinations, the 
result is to darken, while upon others it acts 
as a bleach. 

“ Then there is another condition which 
is not good. Every normal hair should pro¬ 
duce enough oil to keep itself in order. It 
should go clear to the tip of each hair and 
keep it pliable and soft. It also gives the 
glossy appearance to the hair. 

“ You know how quickly evaporation 
takes place in air and sun. Clothes from 
the rinse will soon dry on a breezy sunshiny 


150 THE GIRL BEAUTIFUL 


morning. The same general principle holds 
good with the hair.” 

Miss Jane paused a moment before she 
added, “ It is always pleasing to me to re¬ 
member that the laws of science are uni¬ 
versal. They do not hold good in one phase, 
one time, or one place only; but the nat¬ 
ural laws are universal. Through all the 
ages these laws have enforced themselves. 
Only a divine power could have conceived 
and set them in action, saying to them, 
“ Hold good and true through all the cen¬ 
turies, enforce yourself, and carry with 
you the punishment for the breaking of your 
own commandments.” 

There was always a minute or so of quiet 
after Miss Jane spoke in this manner. It 
was awesome to think that each received 
the results of laws,— millions of years old, 
— who knew. 

“ The air and sunshine acting upon your 
hair has made it too dry. The oil has 
evaporated before it had time to work down 
to the tip of the hair. Not being oiled suf¬ 
ficiently, it becomes brittle and breaks with 
each touch. It really is a very simple affair 
when you consider it.” 


HATS AND HAIR 


151 


“ Then we should have worn our hats. 
Should we never go without hats, Miss 
Jane? ” 

“Yes; air and sunshine is good for the 
hair, but there is such a thing as too much. 
I think it would be wise to wear a head 
covering when one is out of doors during the 
heat of the day. You should wear a hat 
whenever you are in the sun. The hat 
should not be heavy and become a burden 
by its weight. A panama is an excellent 
style. The crown should be high enough to 
permit a fine circulation of air under it. 

“ In early morning, or in the evening, if 
it is not damp, you could go without any 
head covering. As to airing the hair, I 
think every thinking woman does that. The 
heavier and longer her hair is the more the 
airing is needed. She should let her hair 
hang loose, and running her fingers through 
it raise it from her head and shake it out 
thoroughly so that the air reaches every root 
and bit of scalp. You should do this at 
least once a day, and twice or three times 
would be better.” 

“Would you let the sun shine on it 
then ? ” asked Carrie. 


152 THE GIRL BEAUTIFUL 


“No; I should never let the hot sun beat 
upon the hair and head. Sometimes, you 
will enjoy going into the privacy of a back 
yard or porch and letting your hair down, 
shake it out and let the sun and air play 
through it; but it should be only for a time, 
and the sunshine should not be at its ex¬ 
treme of heat, 

“ If you can remember the quaint, old- 
fashioned, well-gowned ladies of your grand¬ 
mother’s day, you will remember also what 
beautiful hair they had — what quantities 
and how well kept. 

“ They were quite as careful not to let 
the extreme cold affect the head as they were 
not to let the extreme heat. 

“ The old-fashioned homes were not 
heated as to-day. The nights were bitter 
cold. Women and little girls always wore 
6 night ’ caps to cover over their hair. I 
am confident that keeping the hair thus 
protected from extremes of temperature 
was one of the reasons for its fine 
growth.” 

“ I know an old lady who attributes her 
quantity of hair to the use of common kero¬ 
sene. She says it was the old-fashioned 


HATS AND HAIR 


153 


cleanser and tonic. Do yon think there is 
anything in that, Miss Jane?” asked May 
West. 

“ I surely do — for several reasons. I 
know several Scotch families where the 
women for three generations have used no 
tonics except this kerosene rubbing. Then 
when it is applied, the hair is let down and 
the oil rubbed on with the fingers. A little 
saucer of oil,— a tablespoonful perhaps, is 
on the dresser, the tips of the fingers are 
dipped into it, and the scalp massaged. 
The oil, of course, encourages circulation, 
but I think the main thing in the efficiency 
of it is that the scalp is massaged by the 
fleshy tips of the fingers. Perhaps, if one 
would massage in the same way and use no 
oil the result would be the same.” 

“But doesn’t the oil make the hair very 
greasy, Miss Jane?” 

“Not at all. There is very little used, 
and it is put on the scalp and not the hair, 
although, of course, the hair immediately 
will absorb some of it. But it evaporates 
very quickly. In half an hour the hair will 
be entirely free from it. 

“ The oil and massage will loosen any 


154 THE GIRL BEAUTIFUL 


dandruff, and the circulation is greatly in¬ 
creased.” 

“ Do you think that brushing is good for 
the hair? ” 

“ Brushing will distribute the natural oil, 
and carry it to the tips. For this reason, 
well-brushed hair is never brittle, and will 
not show so many broken ends, yet a great 
deal of brushing will destroy the natural 
fluff in curly hair. I have known one in¬ 
stance where a woman with beautiful wavy 
hair began a rigorous course of brushing un¬ 
til her hair had lost all its beauty. 

“ Ordinarily, I believe daily brushing is 
an excellent thing, but one should never 
brush wet or damp hair, nor is it ever a wise 
thing to brush with a damp brush.” 

“ Some people cut their hair in certain 
phases of the moon, but, of course, that is all 
superstition,” said Kate. 

“ Is it? ” asked Jane. u There is always 
a quotation which comes to my mind when 
I hear such remarks made. ‘ There are 
more things in heaven and earth than you 
have ever dreamed in your philosophy/ 
The tides are affected by the moon; the in¬ 
sane in asylums become more violent in cer- 


HATS AND HAIR 


155 


tain phases of the moon. The moon has 
followed this old earth of ours about 
through ages. There must be some attrac¬ 
tion or that could not be. Our astronomers 
have divided our years according to the 
cycles of the moon. So I have long since 
put aside saying some things are super¬ 
stitious; they may be the indication of nat¬ 
ural conditions, a science which man has 
not yet unearthed and cannot under¬ 
stand.” 

“ Then you would clip the hair at certain 
phases of the moon, Miss Jane? ” 

“ I would take the strands of hair and ex¬ 
amine the ends closely. If I found them 
split, I would clip off the split dead ends, 
whether it were full moon or not, for no 
new growth can continue if a dead portion 
ends each hair.” 

“ Some hair dressers singe the hair,” said 
Virginia. 

“ I like to follow natural laws in the care 
of the body,” said Miss Jane. “ A scientific 
farmer trims his vines and prunes his trees 
at certain times when the sap is in the root, 
but he does not bring fire to them or in¬ 
tense heat unless his desire is to destroy 


156 THE GIRL BEAUTIFUL 


them. The idea of singeing does not appeal 
to me. Trim the ends, do not let them re¬ 
main split, and I think the results will jus¬ 
tify the course.” 


CHAPTER XIX 


A WOMAN’S GLORY 

M ISS JANE again took up the subject 
of the “ hair.” She wished the 
girls to make better this one deficiency in 
their otherwise well groomed appearance. 

“ The hair should be kept clean. Just 
how often it should be washed depends a 
great deal upon the quality of the hair and 
the physical condition of the person. The 
average woman should wash her hair once a 
month. I have known girls who never 
failed in washing the hair and head once a 
week, but these were invariably girls with 
yellow hair. Too much washing will bleach 
dark hair; and unless there is an excess of 
oil, it will deprive the hair of its necessary 
amount,” 

“ Miss Jane, will you tell us the proper 
way to wash one’s hair? ” asked Ethel. 

“ First of all, I think no one should wash 
157 


158 THE GIRL BEAUTIFUL 


her own head. I will tell you why later. 
There are usually a mother and daughter in 
the house, or two sisters who can give mu¬ 
tual help in this way. Of course, if one 
wishes to call in the professional helper, 
well and good; hut it means an additional 
expense, and an amateur can do quite as 
well if she gives just a little thought to it. 
It is difficult for one to wash her own hair 
because it is almost impossible to rinse the 
back part; if she holds her head under the 
spigot she is apt to splatter the walls; then 
after the hot and cold plunge with her head 
bent forward she cannot properly dry her 
hair. So, for hygienic reasons, I advise 
some assistance. 

“ If the hair is very greasy, I would ad¬ 
vise just a little borax in the first water. It 
will give a fluff to the hair, but if the hair 
is naturally fluffy and stands out then borax 
should never be used. A pinch of common 
baking soda used in the last rinse water will 
keep yellow hair light. It is entirely harm¬ 
less, and can be used without any unpleas¬ 
ant results. It should never be used with 
dark hair. 

“ Ammonia shampoos and many prescrip- 


A WOMAN’S GLORY 


159 


tions which are sold at drug stores are in¬ 
jurious, and should never be used. The 
very simplest way is to take any good white 
soap, castile or its like, and shave about one- 
fourth of a cake into a basin with a cup of 
water. Set the basin over the radiator or 
on the back of the stove until the soap melts. 
It will become like the thickened white of 
an egg. 

“ When in this condition, and only 
slightly warm, have it rubbed into the scalp 
before any water has been put on the hair. 
Every inch should be rubbed thoroughly. 
Then with just a few drops of water on the 
hair take the strands between the hands 
and rub in the shampoo. Of course, never 
use the knuckles to rub either the scalp or 
the hair. The tips of the fingers are used 
for massaging, and the fleshy parts of the 
palm for rubbing. 

“ After every particle of hair and scalp 
has been touched, and the head is covered 
with a fine lather, hold the head over the 
bath tub, and have the rinse water poured 

on. 

“ Instead of trying to sit on a chair and 
bend over it is better to kneel on a cushion. 


160 THE GIRL BEAUTIFUL 


A lavatory basin is generally not large 
enough. If it is, it will answer the purpose 
better than the bath. 

“ The first water should be warm, but not 
hot. There should be plenty of it, and the 
washer should dip the strands of hair in 
the water and rub them as though a piece 
of fine silk. 

“ A second water should be applied, and 
a third. This should be continued until the 
rinse is clear of color and free of any sug¬ 
gestions of soap. The latter water should 
be cold. 

“ Then a large towel should be bound 
about the head, and the ends twisted, draw¬ 
ing the hair in with it. This should be 
pressed closely and twisted until the towel 
is wet. A second towel used in the same 
way will absorb a great deal of water, and 
prevent a chilly cold feeling. Never use a 
bath towel for the head, as the lint will cling 
to the hair. 

“ Put a heavy towel over the shoulders 
that the wet hair will not dampen the 
kimono or the shoulders. If there is a radi¬ 
ator in the room move close to it. The tow¬ 
els should be warmed on the radiator, and 


A WOMAN’S GLORY 


161 


the scalp rubbed thoroughly, but not 
roughly, until it is in a glow and the head 
feels warm. If this is done at once, there 
is little danger of taking cold. 

“ As the towel gets damp, it may be laid 
on the radiator and a second one taken. 
The first will be dried by the time the sec¬ 
ond one is too damp to use. So one can get 
the best from only two towels. 

“ When the scalp is dry, the towels should 
be put about strands of hair and patted, not 
rubbed. It is often the rubbing which 
breaks and tangles the hair. When the 
water has been absorbed, turn the back to¬ 
ward the radiator, and fan the hair so that 
the hot air reaches the strands of hair. The 
hair should be picked up by the ends and 
held so that the air will circulate through 
it. As it becomes dry, it will fluff out and 
be light and airy.” 

u In professional shops they have a blast 
of hot air turned on the hair and it will all 
dry in a few minutes.” 

“ Yes, May. I have seen that done. But 
do you think it is good for the hair or nerves 
to have that blast turned on? The hair 
dries too soon and becomes brittle. The 


162 THE GIRL BEAUTIFUL 


scalp is overheated and one is apt to take 
cold passing from that oven-heated atmos¬ 
phere to the cold outside.” 

“ Why do you suppose professionals will 
do it? ” asked Ruth. 

“ Unfortunately, most professionals think 
only of the amount of money taken in dur¬ 
ing the day. They can do twice as many 
heads of hair when they use the hot-air blast 
than if they had rubbed the hair dry.” 

“ Should oils ever be used on the hair, 
Miss Jane? ” 

“ I think never on the hair, but many peo¬ 
ple need them on the scalp. One must 
judge her own needs. It is in this just as 
it was in the use of cold cream. If one’s 
skin is dry and harsh, oil of some sort is 
needed. So we use cold cream for the face. 
If the scalp is dry, and inclined to be scaly, 
oils should be used at intervals on it.” 

“What kind of oils?” asked Alice. 

“ The simplest animal oils are always the 
best. Whenever we begin visiting drug 
stores and getting mixtures of all sorts we 
are running risks. Some mineral sub¬ 
stances put into the scalp will eventually 
cause baldness and sometimes blood-poison- 


A WOMAN’S GLORY 


163 


ing. The best course for us to pursue is to 
never tamper with drugs in any form. 
Liquid vaseline is the easiest and simplest 
oil for the scalp. If one cannot procure 
that in a small town, then ordinary vaseline 
heated until it becomes a liquid will do as 
well. 

“ If care is taken little or none of this 
need get on the hair. There is one time a 
sister can help. Dip the tips of the fingers 
into the oil and massage the scalp, remem¬ 
bering always two things, that the motion 
is gentle and rotary and that the little cush¬ 
ions on the tips of the fingers are to be 
used. 

“ Some scientists declare that the i rub¬ 
ber ’ herself has an individual effect. If she 
has a great deal of electricity in her body, 
she will give this over through the tips of 
her fingers.” 

“How often would you advise oil treat¬ 
ment? ” 

“With scanty thin dry locks, two and 
three times a week. Under ordinary condi¬ 
tions, an oil massage the day before the hair 
is washed. The climate makes a great deal 
of difference. Dry high air makes the skin 


164 THE GIRL BEAUTIFUL 


and hair dry, and of course more oil is 
needed.” 

“ My scalp is as tight on my head as the 
head of a drum,” said Rose, “ and my hair 
never grew long. Virginia is more frail 
than I, her scalp is loose and the hair is 
wonderful. Is there any connection be¬ 
tween a tight scalp and little hair? ” 

“ Yes; there is. Hair needs food like any 
other part of the body. If the roots are 
imbedded in a layer of fat it can soak up 
its nourishment, and if there is a layer of 
fat between the skin and the bones, the scalp 
will move freely; if not, the scalp moves lit¬ 
tle or not at all. That is one cause. It is 
true also that extremely nervous people may 
become muscle-bound in some part of the 
body. People under a nervous strain, or 
performing the same kind of work year after 
year will suddenly find a muscle contracted 
and a feeling of restriction in it. Some¬ 
times this will take place in the muscles and 
nerves in the spinal column, sometimes the 
biceps. The muscles and nerves in the 
scalp of people of nervous temperament 
often contract until the skin is stretched 
tight. Of course, under such conditions the 


A WOMAN’S GLORY 


165 


hair is impoverished. It may cover the 
scalp, but it will not grow long, for it lacks 
nourishment.” 

“ Can it be overcome? ” 

“ In a measure. At night and morning, 
and whenever one combs her hair, she 
should press her thumbs tightly against the 
sides of the head, on the thick bone back and 
near the top of the ear, and then with the 
fingers she should move the scalp. Her 
fingers should be pressed tight and then 
moved to and fro without removing the tips 
from the scalp. One can feel an improve¬ 
ment in the course of a week. 

“ Indeed, the loosening up of muscles 
should be done not only with the scalp, but 
every night and morning one should mas¬ 
sage the head until the blood is brought 
there; one should breathe so deeply that the 
chest is extended to its full, and the abdo¬ 
men is pulled back until it is far from prom¬ 
inent. The arms should be stretched out 
until the fingers tingle, and then the fingers 
shaken up and down until they feel alive; 
the legs should be stretched by standing tip¬ 
toe and raising the entire body up as high 
as possible. The blood carries life to the 


166 THE GIRL BEAUTIFUL 


extremities and it carries away all the 
poisons and waste matters, so if we would 
keep in health we must help the blood flow¬ 
ing freely to the uttermost parts of these 
bodies.” 


CHAPTER XX 


HAIR DRESSING 

4 < TI ISTORY repeats itself/’ said Miss 
11 Jane. “ I know there is nothing at 
all new in that expression but I am more 
and more impressed with it the older I grow 
and the wider my experience becomes. But 
history is a bigger thing than that found 
in history books. The finest I ever came 
across was that which I found in literature, 
reading between the lines of the author’s 
works and getting the mind of the man him¬ 
self, and the mind of one man of an age gives 
one the atmosphere of the age. I care not 
at all for battles and campaigns, but I do 
care to know how the people thought,— how 
they were hampered by traditions and 
shackled by the minds of those who had 
lived centuries before. 

“ The eighteenth century, in its first half, 
was the most artificial. Each author fol- 
167 


168 THE GIRL BEAUTIFUL 


lowed rules laid down by a previous liter¬ 
ary dictator, and even the art followed cer¬ 
tain set rules. 

“ Why do I bring this up now? Because 
we, in our way of dressing and living, are 
inclined toward following a leader, regard¬ 
less if that leader is one suited to us. 

“ We women owe a great deal to Sir 
Joshua Reynolds, the famous English por¬ 
trait painter, although I think very few of 
us have ever realized it and yet fewer have 
given any credit to him. The portrait 
painters had up to this time always had 
their women-sitters pose in character as 
some historical or mythological personage. 
But Reynolds insisted that they be painted 
women as the woman herself was. He 
made the best of her good points, but did not 
idealize. His great gift to the world was 
not in the paintings themselves, but the 
breaking away from traditions and being 
natural. 

“ He has helped us by this, yet to-day we 
have much blind following. Let me give as 
an example the style of hair-dressing. Not 
two women have head and face of the same 
shape, and yet when fashion dictates they 


HAIR DRESSING 


169 


all follow, and every woman and girl 
dresses her hair in the same way. With 
some the style is good. Others it turns into 
freaks.” 

The girls blushed and then laughed 
softly. Miss Jane’s words touched more 
than one of them. They looked about the 
group of sixteen. Every girl present had 
her hair done up in almost the same way. 
The variations were very slight. 

“ I am afraid, Miss Jane, that we must all 
plead guilty to that. We are all under¬ 
studies of each other,” said Elizabeth. 

“ The only consoling thing about it is that 
we are not alone in this. We have plenty 
of company. Every young woman and 
girl in town is wearing her hair much as 
we.” 

“ Not only in this particular town, but all 
through the country. I think I shall not 
estimate it too high when I say there are a 
million women in the United States who 
give no thought to the lines of their own 
face and head, but blindly copy the style 
that the fashion plates or some other women 
set.” 

“ Miss Jane, please tell me how to relieve 


170 THE GIRL BEAUTIFUL 


the situation. I do not like to be a 6 copy¬ 
cat / neither do I care to look indifferent. 
One does not wish to he peculiar.” 

“ Being different does not mean being pe¬ 
culiar,” said Miss Jane. “ You can be ar¬ 
tistic and beautiful. Anything which is 
beautiful is always so, but the style of one 
year is a monstrosity the next. Every girl 
should study her own lines and needs, and 
get the artistic effect, whether it be in style 
or not.” Miss Jane smiled. “ The fash¬ 
ions are sometimes the most inartistic af¬ 
fairs.” 

“ How are we to know what suits us? ” 
asked Elizabeth. She was big and fair, 
with breadth across the brow and cheeks. 
Her shoulders were broad. She had a 
quantity of yellow hair. Near her sat Sal- 
lie, slender, fine of feature and frail in ap¬ 
pearance. Sallie had the thin clear-cut nos¬ 
tril, lips and chin of the old Greeks. Eliz¬ 
abeth was the sturdy German type. 

“ You have studied the paintings. You 
have been reading fine things; all these 
count. I think if you consider, you will 
know what is best suited to you. Let me 
try the experiment with Elizabeth and Sal- 


HAIR DRESSING 171 

lie. They are both fair, and yet are dis¬ 
tinctly different types.” 

“ This will be loads of fun,” cried Ruth. 
A straight backed chair was brought for¬ 
ward. The little group was in the sheltered 
side porch, free from the eyes of the passer¬ 
by, and not apt to be interrupted by some 
casual caller. 

“ Let us try Sallie first,” said Miss Jane. 
She took down the abundant hair. She di¬ 
vided it and made a heavy pompadour, 
standing up and around the head several 
inches. Then she twisted the bulk of the 
hair into a Psyche on top of the head, mak¬ 
ing it very prominent. The hair was beau¬ 
tifully put up, but the girls laughed when 
all was finished. Even Sallie laughed 
aloud when she looked at herself. 

“ What is wrong?” asked Miss Jane, 
turning to the girls. She herself could not 
repress a smile. 

“ Sallie’s face is delicate and you have 
piled up the hair until she looks burdened,” 
said one. 

“ Sallie has a pointed clear-cut chin, and 
you have run the psyche out in a direct 
line with the chin, so that from chin to end 


172 THE GIRL BEAUTIFUL 


of the knob of hair must measure at least 
two feet.” 

“ I just feel that it is ‘ awful,’ ” said 
Margaret. “ I cannot tell why, but I know 
it is not the right style.” 

“ I will arrange Elizabeth’s hair in the 
same way,” said Miss Jane. “ I am curious 
to see what you will think of that.” 

Elizabeth had a big head and face. Her 
chin was heavy and square. 

“Now, what about Elizabeth?” asked 
Miss Jane. 

“ She looks fine. The hair does not seem 
to pull her down,” said Ruth. “ Of course, 
she’s bigger in every way.” 

“ The knot of hair on top of her head 
makes her look taller and makes the lines 
longer. She needed it, because all Eliza¬ 
beth’s lines are broad,” said little Nellie 
Shepherd. 

“ That is just it,” replied Miss Jane. 
“ Now, I shall try again with Sallie.” 

She drew the hair back from Sallie’s face, 
making only the slightest little natural 
fluff. Then without any fuss, she twisted 
it in a big loose twist low on her neck and 
yet protruding several inches. 


HAIR DRESSING 


173 


Sallie’s longest lines had been from chin 
across cheeks and up through the head. The 
hair in this position made better propor¬ 
tions and gave her the line she needed from 
chin straight back through the neck. This 
made her chin and nose less pointed, and 
her face less thin. 

Sallie studied herself. “ I look classical, 
and quite distinguished/ 7 she said. 

“ You do/ 7 said Ruth. “ That style of 
wearing the hair may not be the latest fash¬ 
ion, but it distinguishes you. You look 
like the heads cut in cameos. 77 

“ I shall wear my hair like this for ever 
more/ 7 said Sallie. “ I never realized how 
Grecian I could be. 77 

“Now, Carrie, let me give you just a 
touch. 77 Carrie’s forehead was low. Miss 
Jane brushed the hair back from it, to make 
it look as high as possible. There was no 
fluff about the ears, but just a little soft 
pompadour on top. “ Your face is broad 
and your forehead low. So you must not 
spread your hair at the sides, to give width. 
Let every bit of the forehead bare, but the 
hair raised slightly will give length to the 
face. You may coil your hair, but I would 


174 THE GIRL BEAUTIFUL 


keep it on top of the head, for you need 
height.” 

Ethel had been studying the others care¬ 
fully. “ I have begun to see where I make 
mistakes in my hair dressing,” she said. 
“ My forehead is extremely high. There are 
bare places over the temples where my hair 
does not grow, and I am very tall. I think 
I must have been accentuating all my bad 
points in my hair dressing.” 

“ Do you wish me to give your hair a few 
touches? ” asked Miss Jane. 

“ I should be so pleased,” cried Ethel, 
taking her place before Miss Jane. 

“ Just a touch. Keep your hair soft 
about the face, but not too high. You have 
some short new hair. Pull it down a little 
over the bare places. There! an invisible 
hair pin will keep it in place and yet it will 
look natural. 

“ You cannot wear your hair at the nape 
of the neck, for you have breadth through 
your throat and chin. Your neck is long, 
but it is fat, and it is also white and good 
in its curves. So we will show the back of 
the neck and keep the best points there. 
We’ll not put the hair high on the head, for 


HAIR DRESSING 


175 


you are tall; so just coil it loosely, and twist 
it between neither high or low, and you may 
have it protruded and not be flat. Then a 
shell pin stuck through it at the proper 
angle will give a suggestion of delicacy in¬ 
stead of heaviness.” 

Ethel looked at herself and laughed. 
“ Why, you have actually made my cheek 
bones less prominent,” she said, “ with fix¬ 
ing the soft fluff down over my temples.” 

“ I have made them seem less prominent,” 
said Miss Jane. 


CHAPTER XXI 


MANNERS 


i ‘X yft TE have talked of beauty of mind 
V V and person,” began Miss Jane one 
day, “ and have said little of the beauty of 
manners. Good manners, like everything 
else, must come from a good heart. There 
are artificial polished manners, which are 
not good. I have met with such manners 
in the society fops, while I have met men 
reared in the wilds who have had good 
manners. A person with kindliness in 
his heart, a desire to make the other per¬ 
son comfortable and happy, can never be 
rude. 

“ There are a few little habits of manner 
which add to a girPs ease and graciousness; 
and which bring her into harmony with the 
people about her. When she shakes hands 
with another, she must not languidly ex¬ 
tend her two fingers. She should grasp the 
hand firmly as though she put some real 
176 


MANNERS 


177 


heart, some real feeling into the grasp, and 
as she does so she must meet the eye of the 
one whose hand she is shaking. 

“ I wish you would try that, girls, and 
see what a different impression you give and 
receive. I like the expression, ‘ Cordial 
handshake/ for cordial means from the 
heart, and like the heart put in all greet¬ 
ings.” 

“Let us try it now; please, Miss Jane. 
Then when I attempt it again I’ll feel easy 
in doing it.” 

“ Very well,” said Miss Jane. “ You may 
have ten minutes practicum. We used to 
use that word in college when we put into 
practice what we had heard in a lecture.” 

The girls arose. They shook hands with 
each other. They looked each other di¬ 
rectly in the eye, and they gave a cordial 
clasp and they said heartily, “ Good after¬ 
noon, Alice,” or Helen or Nellie, as the case 
might be. 

“Now, I feel much easier about that,” 
said Ruth. “ I think I shall do it properly, 
and —” 

“ How did you feel yourself? ” asked Miss 
Jane; “ better or worse? ” 


178 THE GIRL BEAUTIFUL 


“ Better. I had the feeling that I was a 
great big woman looking the world directly 
in the eye,” was the response. 

“ Miss Jane, does a girl always stand 
when she shakes hands? ” asked Nellie. 
“We were discussing that the other day 
and none of ns were quite sure.” 

“ Standing or sitting while shaking hands, 
like a great many other things, depends 
upon circumstances. If you are in your 
own home and a guest enters you rise and 
go to meet her and stand until she is seated. 
This is done whether the caller is a young 
girl, an older woman, or a man, except that 
in the case of a man, you must be seated be¬ 
fore he will take a chair. 

“ But anywhere else, the young lady re¬ 
mains seated if she shakes hands with a 
man, unless that man be very aged, or holds 
some public office. Then she must put re¬ 
spect to age and position. You would rise 
to shake hands with your pastor, the presi¬ 
dent of a college or a governor. We arise 
to honor not the man, but his work and his 
position. A younger woman always rises 
for an elderly woman whenever they meet, 
and should not sit until she is seated.” 


MANNERS 


179 


“ They say we Americans have no sense 
of position,” said Nellie. “ In continental 
Europe all these things are cut and dried. 
It all depends on birth, but in America we 
are not so conventional.” 

“ Well-bred people we are,” said Miss 
Jane, “ only with us, we count character in¬ 
stead of family history. It matters little 
to us in America what a man’s great grand¬ 
father was, if the man himself is a rake. 
We pay the greatest honor to real value — 
the worth of the person himself. In the 
matter of precedence, at a dinner, we allow 
the man and woman of standing to precede 
all others into the dining room. They are 
served first. A man always remains stand¬ 
ing as long as he is in the presence of a 
woman who is standing.” 

“ My brother is very exacting about some 
things,” said Elizabeth. “ He’s older than 
I. He was at church with a lady once, and 
she took the hymn-book, looked up the hymn, 
and handed it to him. He did not like it. 
He says that a man likes to do all the serv¬ 
ing.” 

“ Your brother is right. It is a man’s 
place to see to the necessary books, to raise 


180 THE GIRL BEAUTIFUL 


or lower a window, to carry an umbrella 
when there is but one. With a parasol, the 
matter is different. A parasol is such a 
feminine affair, a woman generally likes to 
carry it, and a man is out of harmony when 
he carries one. 

“ A man of any breeding always likes to 
take thoughtful care of the women in his 
company. He generally is equal to the oc¬ 
casion, and does not enjoy interference. 
The average girl or woman enjoys it.” 

“ There’s another matter, Miss Jane, that 
I wish to ask you about. You’ll think I am 
densely ignorant.” Ruth blushed as she 
spoke. “ I have been walking with young 
men when they would either take my arm or 
grasp it, and walk in that way. Sometimes 
they grasped my arm to help me over about 
an inch rise in the walk. Was that proper? 
Should a man ever take a lady’s arm? 
Should she take his?” 

“As before, all depends,” said Miss Jane. 
“ In America people walking along the pub¬ 
lic roads and streets do not take arms. In 
a very crowded thoroughfare^where a man 
must make his way through the surging 
crowd, the girl or woman takes his arm, and 


MANNERS 


181 


falls just a little back of him, so that he 
protects her from the jostles and bumps of 
the crowd. 

“ Ordinarily this is not necessary. On a 
rainy day when two walk under one um¬ 
brella the girl takes the man’s arm. He 
should ask her to do so, but if he should be 
neglectful it is proper for her to say, c If I 
may take your arm, I believe I could walk 
better.’ 

“ If a lady is very old, or feeble from ill¬ 
ness, then the man slips his arm under hers, 
so that she can lean heavily upon it, and 
grasps his hand about her waist. It gives 
a sense of security. There is no danger of 
her slipping. Old ladies in particular like 
this, but I think it will not be a necessary 
procedure for you for many years.” 

They all smiled at this remark. “ Then, 
ordinarily a man never takes a woman’s 
arm? ” asked Ruth. 

“ Never, and only offers his when it will 
make it safer or more convenient for his 
companion.” 

“ There is another matter of which I wish 
to speak,” said Miss Jane. u That is your 
manner of salutation when you pass friends 


182 THE GIRL BEAUTIFUL 


and acquaintances on the street. Do one of 
two things — either speak heartily and 
courteously or not at all. If you speak to 
one person, attach the name to the saluta¬ 
tion as, ‘ Good-morning, Mrs. Jones/ or 
‘ Good-evening, Mr. Smith.’ Whatever you 
do, do not get the flippant airy mannerism 
of hurling forth, ‘ how-dmdu.’ It is not 
well-bred, and it certainly does not win 
friends for the girl. I would much rather 
receive a hearty ‘ Hello ’ from an acquaint¬ 
ance than the pert little ‘ How-du-du.’ At 
least it is spontaneous, full of feeling, and 
natural. 

“ If you meet two ladies whom you know, 
of course the names cannot be used. It is 
then merely ‘ Good-morning,’ or ‘Good-eve¬ 
ning.’ And if you should pass Mrs. Smith, 
who is walking with Mrs. Brown, whom you 
do not know, you must say ‘ Good-morning ’ 
only, and not ‘ Good-morning, Mrs. Smith,’ 
and the same is true when meeting two men. 
If you know but one simply bid the time of 
day without attaching a name.” 

“ I knew that, but I confess I was never 
very careful about observing it,” said 
Bertha. “ I presume it is worse to know 


MANNERS 


183 


tlie right thing and not do it than it is to 
be in ignorance.” 

“ In the first the responsibility rests on 
no one but yourself,” said Miss Jane. “ I 
know that I need not speak to you girls of 
some things. You have been so well taught 
at home that you know the proper use of 
all connected with a dinner table; that the 
knife never is put to the lips; that when 
the plate is sent for a second helping, the 
knife and fork must remain on the plate; 
that the spoon is removed from the cup 
when one would drink from it, and that a 
fork is always used for a vegetable or des¬ 
sert whenever it can be used, and not a 
spoon. 

“ That soup is eaten from the side of the 
spoon and not from the end; that bread is 
broken in small pieces and spread, and not 
laid on the cloth, that a whole slice is never 
buttered; that coffee is never poured into 
the saucer; that elbows never rest on the 
table; that the napkins are laid across the 
lap and not tucked in the front of the dress; 
that if there is a maid waiting upon the 
table the only one who makes a request of 
her is the lady at the head of the table; that 


184 THE GIRL BEAUTIFUL 


lettuce and asparagus are not cut with the 
knife, but with the side of the fork; and that 
pie is always a ‘ fork ’ article.” 

The girls laughed and agreed that all 
these things they had been taught from their 
youth up. 

“ Yet every day one may learn something 
new/’ said Miss Jane. “ Last winter I spent 
some weeks in a school where girls were 
taught household economy. They were told 
that in passing a glass of water, they should 
grasp the glass about the center and not 
near the top. 

“ I inquired the reason for this, and found 
that there really was a reason. The fingers 
should not touch that portion of the glass 
where the lips would touch in drinking.” 


CHAPTER XXII 


BEAUTY WITHIN 

E THEL was upstairs in her own room 
when she heard Dick come in. She 
had passed him a half hour before. She 
had been in company with some of her girl 
friends. It was Saturday afternoon, and 
they had taken advantage of an afternoon 
out of school to run about and call at each 
others’ homes. Coming up Presquisle Ave¬ 
nue, they had passed Dick coming home from 
the office. Dick was twenty-three, and em¬ 
ployed in an electric concern. As Ethel 
passed him he was conscious of a most pe¬ 
culiar expression on her face. He had 
looked at her quite intently as though she 
were a stranger, and almost forgot to lift 
his hat. He came into the house now just 
when she was thinking of him and wonder¬ 
ing what had been the trouble — if trouble 
it was. 

She heard him go directly into the living- 

185 


186 THE GIRL BEAUTIFUL 


room, where their mother sat with some 
fancy work. “ What has Ethel been doing 
to herself?” he asked. Ethel meanwhile 
had come to the landing on the stairs and 
was about to descend, but unconsciously 
paused. 

“ Doing to herself? I don’t understand, 
Dick.” 

“ Has she been getting any new togs or 
anything especially fine? ” 

“What a question! No, Dick, it is too 
early for new fall or winter suits. She was 
wearing a spring suit this afternoon — a lit¬ 
tle jacket suit that she bought last Easter. 
Why?” 

Ethel herself was asking that question. 
Why was Dick suddenly interested in 
whether or not her clothes were new? 

“ Why, I passed her and that bunch of 
girls she runs with. I declare I didn’t 
know one of them, nor even Ethel until they 
were close up to me. Why, they walked as 
though they were all princesses of the royal 
blood. You know how Margaret used to 
walk, all stooped over. Well, she was as 
princess-like as the rest. 

“Ethel is getting over that way of not 


BEAUTY WITHIN 


187 


knowing whether she wants to speak or not. 
They spoke to-day the way girls should. I 
never knew that Ethel was so good looking. 
I thought you must have bought her some 
extra fine clothes. 

“ Harlan, the man who owns most of the 
electric company, was in town to-day look¬ 
ing over the plant. He just happened to 
leave the office when I did. He asked 
who they were. I said my sister and her 
friends,— just a bunch of high school girls. 

“ ‘Well, they’re mighty fine looking young 
ladies, and they appeared very well-bred 
and courteous. I liked the cordial way in 
which they addressed you.’ ” 

Ethel fairly hugged herself. “ I am go¬ 
ing to tell this to the other girls and to Miss 
Jane,” she said. “ It will please Miss Jane 
to know that her efforts have not been 
wasted.” 

Meanwhile, Miss Jane was having callers. 
Mrs. Copeler had called to see Jane on busi¬ 
ness. Her voice was pitched high. There 
was a rasping quality in it. She fussed with 
her rings and bracelets and drew her gloves 
on and off. She had surely not learned 
that steadiness of feature and stillness of 


188 THE GIRL BEAUTIFUL 


person are the signal marks of good breed¬ 
ing. Her neck was long and thin, her fea¬ 
tures sharp, yet she wore a waist without a 
collar and her hat and hair accentuated the 
thinness. 

“ Jane, I want you to do something for 
me,” she began the instant their greetings 
were over. “ I never in my life saw girls 
improve like those you’ve taken under your 
wing. Now, I want you to take me in hand 
and improve me. You’ll do it for old friend¬ 
ship’s sake? ” 

“ I would do it for anyone if I could,” said 
Miss Jane. “ But I am truly sorry that I 
cannot help you.” 

“Why? Am I so much worse looking 
than the others? For goodness sake, don’t 
tell me that I look worse than some of those 
unformed immature girls that you have been 
taking such an interest in? ” 

Jane was placed in a difficult position. 
How could Mrs. Copeler ever become beauti¬ 
ful when her heart was filled with envy and 
ugly feelings? The water from a faucet 
can be no sweeter and purer than the spring 
from which it flows. 

“It is not that — a matter of compari- 


BEAUTY WITHIN 


189 


son,” said Miss Jane. “ But it is difficult 
to break the habit of forty years. If a 
woman would be beautiful, she must sow 
the seeds of beauty at fourteen. The idea 
that beauty is only skin-deep is false. True 
beauty goes to the very heart and soul of a 
woman. 

“ To think only beautiful thoughts,— to 
read only what is inspiring and uplifting! 
Can you begin that and keep to it, Mabel, 
when your mind has long been adjusted to 
other lines? ” 

“You seem to think that I do not read 
beautiful things and think them too. Why, 
Jane, I have a mind! If I remember, I went 
you one better all the time we were in 
school.” 

“ I know I was not brilliant,” said Jane 
gently. “ Nor was I speaking of brilliance. 
A steady candle-glow through many years 
lights more than one sudden flash of light¬ 
ning. I would not take one iota from the 
worth of your mind. I asked simply how 
you have been using it. You have come for 
help. I cannot give it, and yet I would 
have you know why. You have made the 
best of it, Mabel? ” 


190 THE GIRL BEAUTIFUL 


“ No; I haven’t kept to goody-goody books 
with the moral in them so thick that it 
tasted like castor-oil; no, Jane. I like to 
read of life as it is, and see it, too. The 
world isn’t all good, and people in it are 
not all good, so why should I close my eyes 
and try to think and see only the beauti¬ 
ful? ” 

“ Because you cannot see why,” said Miss 
Jane, “is the reason I cannot help you. 
When you once see, then the first step to¬ 
ward improvement is taken.” 

Something Mrs. Copeler had said re¬ 
mained with her. It gave her a new idea 
for a talk to her girls, so again was she true 
to the principles. 

In Mrs. Copeler’s words Jane found a 
lesson to pass on. She had turned ugliness 
into an aid toward real beauty. 

“ The world may not be all good,” she 
said that same afternoon to the girls, “ but 
we can look for the good always and train 
our perceptions to find the faintest touch 
of beauty,— for all is in the eye of the be¬ 
holder. Let me give you an example,” she 
said, “ of eyes which were seeking different 
things. Two women were walking down 


BEAUTY WITHIN 


191 


the street together, when one turned to the 
other and said, ‘ Look at the beautiful 
flowers in the window there. Did you ever 
see such a mass of color on a cold winter’s 
day?’ She was looking toward a window 
filled with scarlet geraniums. 

“ ‘ The flowers are all right, but look at 
the cans they’re in. I despise flowers in a 
tin can,— and painted such a horrible green 
as that.’ 

“ Her companion looked. Sure enough! 
there was a tiny edge of tin can showing 
above the window ledge. Square yards of 
glorious color! A tiny edge of tin,— and 
she saw the tin. 

“ There may be something unlovely and 
unlovable in each one’s character. It is 
there. All we can do or say cannot eradi¬ 
cate it, for all are humanity with some of 
the frailties of humanity; but in that same 
person is a great expanse of beauty in some 
form; truth, honor, unselfishness, self-sacri¬ 
fice. Why look at the narrow dark line of 
her frailties when all the glorious bloom is 
calling for attention? 

“No place or person can be unlovely to 
her who has love in her heart. She carries 


192 THE GIRL BEAUTIFUL 


the beauty with her, and whatever her eyes 
fall upon or upon whatever her mind dwells, 
there will fall the roseate gleam from 
within. 

“ ‘ There is good mind and food in the 
Inn at Ipswich if — one carries them with 
h im / There’s beauty and goodness to be 
found in all the earth if one carries them 
with him.” 


CHAPTER XXIII 
BATHS AND COLDS 

4 6 P 11HE bath is one of the mooted ques- 
X tions,” said Miss Jane one after¬ 
noon. “ Not that any one thinks there 
should not be many of them, but whether 
they should be hot or cold is the question. 
One specialist declares that no one can lay 
down general health rules for the individual 
and his power of endurance and reaction 
differ so greatly that what would be bene¬ 
ficial to one would be harmful to another. 

“ The body — every inch of it, should be 
kept absolutely clean. You girls have had 
physiology enough to know that the sys¬ 
tem uses the sweat glands and pores to 
throw off waste-matter. Poisons come 
from the body in the sweat and perspira¬ 
tion. If perspiration is retarded, dullness 
and lethargy follows. If the skin should 
be painted or varnished so that all these 
193 


194 


THE GIRL BEAUTIFUL 


little pores would be closed up, death will 
follow. 

“ Dust and grime help to close these 
pores. To keep them open and in good 
working order, there should be a daily bath. 

“ There are really two classes of baths/’ 
said Miss Jane. “ One is taken for clean¬ 
liness and the other for stimulation, al¬ 
though the second may be in a measure one 
of cleanliness too. 

“ The morning bath of cold water stimu¬ 
lates the nerves and arouses them to greater 
activity. The brisk rough rub brings the 
blood flowing to the surface, and the blood, 
carrying impurities, throws them oft 
through these active pores. 

“ As to what that cold bath is, depends 
upon the constitution of the person. A 
shower is excellent. Some girls can take it 
ice-cold even in winter. I have known col¬ 
lege girls who found themselves dull and 
slow of movement in the morning, fill a tub 
with cold water from the faucet and take 
a dip for two or three minutes. Several 
took this and thrived, a third took it and 
became ill. 

“ In taking a cold bath there must be re- 


BATHS AND COLDS 


195 


action. That is after the shock of contact 
with cold water there must be a pleasant 
warm glow. If this does not follow imme¬ 
diately after a shower or a plunge, one 
should not take the cold bath. 

u The third girl who took these cold dips 
became as warm as toast afterward. She 
took them before seven o’clock in the morn¬ 
ing. She became almost too much over¬ 
heated in the reaction, but a second reac¬ 
tion set in later. About eleven o’clock in 
the morning, she became chilly and could 
not get warm even though she sat close to 
a radiator and bundled up. The cold dip 
was not for her. 

“ The third bath, of course, is the sponge 
bath of warm water, followed by a dash of 
cold water over the throat, chest and arms. 

“ I should advise this for the average girl. 
You can get all the benefits without running 
any risks. 

“ One should be careful about cold baths, 
either summer or winter, if there is too 
much acid in the body. If the kidneys do 
not throw off all the uric acid, the sweat 
glands must. Often cold water, instead of 
stimulating these pores, contracts them, 


196 THE GIRL BEAUTIFUL 


and the poison is kept in the system. This 
will be followed by bloating of the hands 
or feet, a swollen throat, or pain about the 
lining of the cavities of the skull. 

“ The best morning bath, to my way of 
thinking, is with a big soft sponge, tepid 
water, and then the dash of cold over the 
face, throat and chest. 

“ Another mooted question is the hot 
bath. I think the word hot should be elim¬ 
inated and warm put in its place. Hot 
baths, where the water is at a bearable tem¬ 
perature and from which the flesh gets the 
appearance of being parboiled are detri¬ 
mental. 

“A warm bath every night before retir¬ 
ing is beneficial, but it should be warm. 
When the bath is very hot the blood may be¬ 
come congested about the heart; sometimes 
there is a rushing of blood to the head and 
dizziness follows. In cases of this kind, one 
might become unconscious. 

“ The warm or hot bath should be taken 
only at bedtime, and one should retire im¬ 
mediately upon taking it. If one feels ex¬ 
cessive languor in the morning, then she has 
either remained in the bath too long or has 


BATHS AND COLDS 


197 


liad it too hot. Either or both conditions 
should be remedied at once. A warm bath 
every night is sometimes detrimental. A 
girl must judge for herself. If, after tak¬ 
ing them, she falls asleep and rests well, 
and does not feel worn and tired in the 
morning, she knows that they are a benefit 
to her. 

“ Very hot baths have a medicinal value. 
When one has had a long mountain hike 
and the muscles are stiff and sore, a very 
hot bath and rub, several glasses of cold 
water drank after the bath, and an hour in 
bed will prevent stiffness and soreness the 
next day. 

“A scientist has declared that for every 
ill that flesh is heir to, nature has provided 
some remedy, and that man’s ignorance has 
prevented its use. 

“ Another declares that water used prop¬ 
erly can take the place of drugs; that it will 
restore, build tissue and prevent needless 
accumulation and waste.” 

“Is that not a pretty big statement?” 
said Ruth, with a smile. 

“ It seems big,” responded Miss Jane, 
“ but the more one studies the use of water, 


198 THE GIRL BEAUTIFUL 


the more one is inclined to accept his state¬ 
ment. Boiling water will destroy germs. 
Hot water and salt will empty the stomach 
of indigestible food, and tone up the lining 
and make it more active. 

“ Excessive hot water will move the bow¬ 
els. Drinking plenty of cold water each 
day keeps the kidneys and intestines washed 
out. It is really wonderful what water can 
do. 

“ A glass of hot water will stimulate and 
warm up a person who has become uncon¬ 
scious or exhausted quite as quickly as 
whiskey, and there are no after effects. 
The trouble is that we do not use enough of 
it or often enough. 

“ As to baths, an intelligent person who 
understands how germs and microbes infest 
the dust of the street, will bathe often 
enough. No really clean person could re¬ 
tire at night without a foot-bath, at least; 
when one considers what dirt and filth the 
foot has come in contact with, one realizes 
that the bathing of the feet each night is a 
necessity. 

“ The glands of the feet are also agents for 
throwing off impurities. It is necessary to 


BATHS AND COLDS 


199 


keep the pores open and the skin free from 
thick calloused places. Soaking in hot 
water is the only way to do this. 

“ Miss Jane, while you were speaking of 
the use of cold water, it came to me that 
I never told you what three months of the 
‘cold dash’ did for my throat and neck,” 
said Marie. 

“I can see,” said Miss Jane. Marie’s 
neck was white and firm looking. There 
were no sagging muscles. The lines were 
rounded and full, and when the neck was 
a little exposed from her laid hack collar, 
there was plumpness, and not hollows. 

“ Ever since my first talk with you,” said 
Marie, “ I have tried to overcome the tend¬ 
ency toward cold in my throat. I have not 
bound up my neck. Every night and morn¬ 
ing I have dashed cold water over the throat 
and chest. My throat was strengthened at 
once. My huskiness has left, and much to 
my surprise, I found that my neck and 
throat had improved in appearance. I do 
not get ‘ goose-flesh ’ and I do not feel chilled 
every time a draft touches me.” 


CHAPTER XXIV 


LITTLE THINGS THAT COUNT 

“Q5INGERS never bundle up their 
lO throats,” said Miss Jane, in contin¬ 
uation of Marie’s last words. “ Our prima- 
donnas may wear furs for the effect which 
they have on a woman’s appearance, but if 
you observe you will see that they do not 
draw them close, but leave the throat ex¬ 
posed. 

“ There are two certain ways of weaken¬ 
ing a muscle; keep it overheated or bound 
tight. In a very short time it will lose its 
elasticity and strength. A muscle free and 
exercised is the well muscle.” 

“ Not a great many years ago,” began 
Elizabeth, “the girls all wore high tight 
collars. I was just a little girl, but I re¬ 
member how my aunties arranged their 
neckwear; I thought it was perfectly beau¬ 
tiful then, but I admired them so much that 
200 


LITTLE THINGS THAT COUNT 201 

I suppose anything that they might do I 
would think perfect. One style was par¬ 
ticularly attractive to me then. I laugh at 
it when I think of it now. One of them 
would take a strip of wide, fancy ribbon, 
about a yard long, and fastening it to the 
neck band at one end, she swathed her neck 
in it, making it reach up under the ears, 
and drew it so tight that she could scarcely 
breathe.” 

“ I remember my mother used to wear 
linen collars two inches high,” said Bertha. 
“ She said the other day that her neck 
showed the marks of them yet, and that she 
should never get over wearing them.” 

“ You should be thankful that you have 
been born into this age and not a hundred 
years before,” said Miss Jane. “ Women 
are making an effort to get health, com¬ 
fort and beauty into their dress, and you 
girls are reaping the harvest which the 
women before you sowed. We have ad¬ 
vanced, and yet there is much to learn. 

“ I think the greatest advance was when 
the study of the human body was intro¬ 
duced into school, and girls were taught of 
the wonderful mechanism of the body — the 


202 THE GIRL BEAUTIFUL 


most highly differential machine in the uni¬ 
verse, with all parts doing their work well. 
There can be no real advance on a base of 
ignorance. To do and to know why we do, 
is the big idea of evolution, and by evolu¬ 
tion I mean a moving forward, each gene¬ 
ration having higher ideals, better health 
and more spirituality than those who pre¬ 
ceded them.” 

Miss Jane paused. “ I digress. Let us 
go back to the subject of collars. You have 
been taught about the spinal column. You 
know that the spinal cord enters the brain 
at the base of the skull. You know also 
that the main arteries which feed the brain 
lie on each side of the throat and that the 
blood returns in a similar pair of veins 
called the ‘ jugular/ which are very close to 
the surface. Can you imagine a really in¬ 
telligent person binding those veins tight 
and retarding circulation, or tightening the 
bands about the spinal column until the 
nerves are restricted and repressed? It is 
very, very foolish. I might not be wrong 
were I to call it sinful; for if we are held 
accountable for the crimes which we com¬ 
mit against our bodies, I am sure we would 


LITTLE THINGS THAT COUNT 203 


for this,— since it lessens our vitality and 
our movement toward efficiency. 

“ You know that a man who understands 
horses will not use a check-rein because it 
draws the horse’s head to an unnatural po¬ 
sition. 

“ The best way of dressing in regard to 
the throat and neck is to have the dress 
without a collar, or a little low in front and 
a rolling collar in the back. I do not mean 
that there should be a great exposure of 
chest; I mean a mere turning aside of re¬ 
striction on the throat. 

“ I like the way that girls are dressing 
now — the loose middy — the collarless 
shirtwaist. It all tends toward developed 
muscles and freedom of motion. But I do 
not look with favor upon the waist cut so 
low that the breast-bone is exposed, or ma¬ 
terial so thin that it merely suggests a cov¬ 
ering instead of covering. 

“ In whatever style of dressing may be in 
favor, there are always some who will go to 
extremes, and make the style odious and un¬ 
pleasant. 

“ The young girl who appears on the 
street with an extreme low waist, of mere 


204 THE GIRL BEAUTIFUL 


gauze, a short skirt above her shoe-tops and 
stockings so thin that the flesh is seen 
through them, is one of two things — very 
young and ignorant, or indecent.” 

“ That seems rather harsh,” said Miss 
Jane. “ But I wish you girls to know what 
laxity in such details of dress means. I 
cannot explain a great many things to you. 
You must just take my word for it. You 
are all at the age where you must take some 
of our admonitions and advice on faith. In 
a few years you will see more clearly, and I 
know will be thankful that we elder women 
protected and admonished. 

“ There are two methods of guarding 
girls in their ‘ Teen 9 years,” said Miss Jane. 
“ One is to tell them of all the evils and 
snares and pitfalls in the world. I think 
all this knowledge robs them of the inno¬ 
cence and sweet simplicity of girlhood. I 
want all the girls I know to have a child¬ 
hood and girlhood filled with ideals. I 
would not rob them of one. 

“ The other way is to guard and protect 
all girls until their years are matured and 
their judgment ripe and their will under 
control. This, I think, is the responsibility 


LITTLE THINGS THAT COUNT 205 


of all mothers, and not only of mothers hut 
of every woman. We should not throw the 
responsibility upon young people. So, my 
dear girls, when we guard and protect it is 
because we would keep with you the ideals 
and innocence of youth.” 

“ I think I like your digressions as well 
as I like the beauty talks,” said Nellie. 
“ You give me something to think about.” 

“And yet all these are beauty talks/’ 
said Miss Jane. “ There can be no beauty 
without ideals, intelligence and cultivation 
of mind, soul and body.” 

“ To go back to the details of physical 
beauty,” said Miss Jane. “ There is an old 
saying which declares these three things are 
the marks of a lady; well-kept teeth, well- 
brushed hair and well-manicured hands. 

“ As to the teeth. They should be 
brushed after every meal. Before going to 
bed, a clean wholesome feeling is given if 
the mouth is rinsed out and the teeth 
brushed, although one has not been eating. 
The acids and decomposition taking place in 
the stomach will affect the mouth, so the 
tooth-wash before bed-time is quite in ac¬ 
cordance with the rules of health. 


206 THE GIRL BEAUTIFUL 


“ A tooth brush and water which is not 
extremely cold, is the simplest and best way 
of cleaning; add to this dental floss to 
slip between the teeth to remove all parti¬ 
cles of food, is all that is really necessary. 

“ One should visit a good dentist twice a 
year. This will be economy. If cavities 
are attended to at once, the fillings will be 
smaller and not so expensive. 

“ Biting threads with the teeth should not 
be done. I have known some girls to crush 
almond shells between their teeth, crush 
taffy, and use their teeth generally as one 
would use a nut-cracker. There is always 
a bill to pay after this, for it matters not 
how strong teeth may appear to be, the 
enamel will crack or break. 

“ If one is in health the breath should be 
sweet. If it is not, the teeth are decayed or 
unclean, or the stomach is out of order. 

“ Decayed and badly kept teeth have a 
direct influence on the stomach and on di¬ 
gestion in general. Improper digestion will 
dull the eye and the complexion. Teeth 
well cared for, clean and sanitary, may be a 
direct aid to good coloring and bright eyes.” 


CHAPTER XXV 


HANDSOME LINES 

T HE summer was growing to a close. 

There had been three months of hon¬ 
est effort on the part of the girls to make 
the most of themselves in every particular. 
It was quite as easy, when one came to con¬ 
sider it, to be beautiful as to be homely; 
tastefully dressed as to have lines and colors 
out of harmony. 

Jane met the girls on Virginia’s porch 
this particular afternoon. The new fall 
styles had begun to cast the shadows of 
their coming. It was to be a year of stripes 
— broad gaudy stripes, and the skirts were 
to be extremely short. These new styles 
were in Miss Jane’s mind when she talked 
with the girls. 

“I shall generalize this afternoon,” she 
said. “ To be in style is an excellent thing. 
It suggests at least that the woman’s mind 
207 


208 THE GIRL BEAUTIFUL 


has been active. But in addition to this ac¬ 
tivity there should be good taste, judgment, 
and discrimination. When a girl lacks 
these, she had far better not try to be in 
style. 

“ Let us consider the new style of broad 
gaudy stripes for skirts. First, the mate¬ 
rial is generally coarse. It is just what we 
would make awnings of, or use for ticks or 
for pillows. They will be difficult to keep 
in order,— for they can not be washed and 
scalded like a white duck or linen. The 
colors fade and bleach and some of the 
darker ones will run into the white. This 
is from the utilitarian stand-point. Now, 
from the artistic! The material is not fine 
or dainty, the coloring is gaudy and the 
stripes bizarre. They attract attention to 
the wearer. From this point of view, they 
have no value.” 

“ Dear me, Miss Jane,” said Helen, who 
was as tall and slender as a sapling, “ I 
never thought of that or I surely would not 
have bought myself such a suit. I have a 
broad blue and white striped skirt.” 

“ Give it away,” said Miss Jane smil¬ 
ingly. “ If stripes must be worn let the 


HANDSOME LINES 


209 


plump stout girls wear them. Stripes in¬ 
crease the height — that is if worn longi¬ 
tudinally.” 

“ I’ve always heard that,” said Bertha. 
“ But I never knew whether or not it was 
true. I thought perhaps it was one of those 
old sayings which had been accepted and re¬ 
peated without any reason back of it.” 

“ It has reason back of it,” said Miss 
Jane. “ The eye is easily deceived. No 
one sees things as they really are, but as 
they seem to he, and lines give the appear¬ 
ance of greater length. Test that some¬ 
time with two pieces of material of the same 
length; but one plain and the other 
striped.” 

“ Can you lessen one’s height? ” asked 
Helen. 

“ You may seem to lessen it,” said Miss 
Jane. “ But it only seems less, and is not 
so, really. If a tall girl wears ruffled 
skirts, or if she has broad tucks going 
around her skirt, she may shorten the effect. 
Wherever possible, her trimming or tucks 
should go ‘ round ’ and not up and down. 
Another way is to break the waistline with 
a sash of colored ribbon or velvet. Such a 


210 THE GIRL BEAUTIFUL 


device cute the length in two. All girls, 
whether tall or short, do not bear the same 
proportion in length of skirt and waist. 
Where shirt-waist and skirt is worn the 
girl with the long waist should wear the 
skirt with a high waist-line, or a belt like 
her skirt. On the other hand, the short- 
waisted girl should wear her belt of the 
same color as her waist.” 

“ Does this hold true in other things be¬ 
sides dresses?” asked Ruth. “I mean do 
lines give the effect of length? ” 

“ If placed up and down, yes. The height 
of a low-ceilinged room is increased by us¬ 
ing striped paper. In rooms with high 
ceilings a drop is used, or the walls broken 
by a molding.” 

“ I understand something now,” said 
Ruth. “ Yesterday I saw some girls at the 
station. They were going up to a cottage 
house-party. They were very handsomely 
dressed. One girl wore a short skirt and 
low shoes. Her stockings were black silk 
with narrow white stripes going around 
and round. The stripes were only the 
width of a thread or so.” 

“ What was the effect? ” asked Miss Jane. 


HANDSOME LINES 


211 


“ Her ankle looked large — very large. 
Indeed her foot looked clumsy and awkward 
because of it.” 

“And in addition the ‘loud’ stockings 
are not in good taste. One never finds the 
conservative/ well-bred girl wearing them. 
While we are on this subject,” continued 
Miss Jane, “ I wish to warn you girls about 
wearing low shoes for long walks,— and ex¬ 
treme heels for street wear. If you do so, 
you will find that in the course of a year, 
your ankles will be very much enlarged; 
because high heels put the weight of the 
body on the flat of the foot. You will wear 
a much broader last after wearing high 
heels for a year.” 

“ I know it to my sorrow,” said Nellie. 
“ Father spoke to me several times about 
wearing high heels on the street, but I con¬ 
tinued doing it, and now I wear a D last 
where before an A or B was roomy.” 

“May we go back to the subject of 
dresses?” said Alice. “That seems to be 
a question which always interests girls. I 
do not have a great deal to spend on clothes. 
I have skirts and middies for school and my 
long coat from last winter. I could not get 


212 THE GIRL BEAUTIFUL 


a great deal new. I thought of a new coat 
suit for street and church, and a white dress 
for parties. What do you think of that, 
Miss Jane? ” 

“ It is excellent. You can be well- 
dressed for two years with two such dresses. 
When a girl can not get many clothes, she 
does not err when she selects white for her 
‘ party ? dress. A soft white is becoming. 
It is good as long as it holds together. It 
does not get out of style as some fad would, 
and fortunately one does not get so tired of 
it as one does of a color.” 

“ I do not seem to have much trouble with 
my dresses,” said Virginia. “ My hats trou¬ 
ble me. I have such a broad face. I really 
get discouraged.” 

“ I can pass some information on to you 
which was passed to me several years ago,” 
said Miss Jane. “ It is in regard to hats, 
and is the same old theory about the rela¬ 
tion of lines. I was wearing a turban — a 
very beautiful tailored effect off my head. 
But as you see my nose has just a little tend¬ 
ency to ‘ turn-up,’ and I too have breadth 
across the eyes and cheek bones. 

“ I was wearing the hat one day when a 


HANDSOME LINES 


213 


woman met me. She had been an artist in 
her day, but had become a derelict through 
the use of drugs. She looked at me with 
her bleared eyes. ‘ A pointed turban with 
a nose like that/ she said. ‘ I never see you 
but I wonder when your nose and the point 
in the turban will meet/ 

“ I smiled, made some indifferent answer 
and went on. Later I went to a milliner 
who was an artist in her line. I asked her 
what the trouble was with me and my hat. 

“ 6 You are both right/ she said, ‘ but you 
were never intended to travel together/ 

“ Then she showed me, that I, having the 
greatest width from right to left in the 
measurement of my head, should have the 
greatest length from right to left in the 
width of my hat. It was a very simple lit¬ 
tle thing; but it changed the whole outline 
of my face and head. Now when I wear a 
turban or tri-corn I put the broadside front 
or nearly front.” 

All the while Miss Jane had been talking 
Bertha had nodded her approval as though 
the recital had brought up a similar ex¬ 
perience of her own. 

“ And little hats on a big face,” said 


214 THE GIRL BEAUTIFUL 


Bertha. “ I tried it once, and I know how 
I looked.” 

“ Before leaving the question of the pres¬ 
ent styles,” said Miss Jane, “ I wish to 
speak of the length of skirts. Remember 
that a cultivated refined girl is never a blind 
follower of fashion. A girl must adjust the 
length of her walking skirt to the propor¬ 
tion of her own figure. If a girl has a hip 
measure of 40, and wears a skirt 36 inches 
long, the effect surely is bad; nor can an 
extremely tall girl wear a skirt as short as 
that of her dainty petite friend. She must 
use her mirror, and her own common sense, 
and suggest the style without blindly fol¬ 
lowing.” 

The girls began to examine their skirts. 
There were many perplexed uncertain ex¬ 
pressions. 

“ Next week I must return home,” said 
Miss Jane. “ So Tuesday must necessarily 
be our last talk on Health and Beauty.” 


CHAPTER XXVI 


THE GIRL BEAUTIFUL 

M ISS JANE looked about the group of 
girls who were gathered on the 
porch. Not one had imitated. Each one 
had made the best of herself; had expressed 
her own individuality. They had not 
changed the shape of their faces, nor the 
color of their eyes; but their sane whole¬ 
some living for three months had given them 
a clear complexion and eye. There was no 
sagging muscles, no hanging jaws, curved 
backs or crooked necks. Already the de¬ 
sire to live right, to put away little selfish 
thoughts was beginning to show in the fa¬ 
cial expression. One cannot do over the en¬ 
tire mental attitude in three months, but 
one can make a tremendous change. The 
girls knew that to keep the face sweet one 
must keep the heart sweet, and they were 
working from within outward. 

Miss Jane looked at them and smiled 

215 


216 


THE GIRL BEAUTIFUL 


contentedly. It is a wonderful inspiration 
to see a group of young girls with ideals. 
“ There’s just one more talk I wish to give,” 
said Miss Jane. “ Then I leave my mes¬ 
sage — and the results, with you. I found 
a little old poem last evening in a third 
reader, which was used a generation or 
more ago. 

“ It begins, ‘ Beautiful hands are those 
which —■’ and continues to tell of the varied 
services these hands do; but it is with the 
hands as it is with the person. We have 
passed the age where we believe that good¬ 
ness must garb itself in homeliness, or un¬ 
attractiveness. One can be good and be 
beautiful. So with the hands! They may 
serve many and in various ways, but that 
is no reason why they should be badly kept 
and unsightly. They may be beautiful and 
serviceable. 

“ If you are working about the kitchen, 
and stain the hands with paring potatoes or 
cutting fruit, take a slice of lemon, rub it 
over the hands as one would soap, and the 
stains disappear. If a lemon is not con¬ 
venient, a vinegar wash is quite as effec¬ 
tive. 


THE GIRL BEAUTIFUL 217 


“ If the kitchen work necessitates the use 
of strong soaps the vinegar bath is again 
reactionary. The soaps and lyes are alka¬ 
line, while the vinegar is acid, and the one 
will destroy the other. 

“ To keep the hands in order keep lemon 
or vinegar within reach. 

“ It is never necessary to scald or par¬ 
boil one’s hands even in dishwashing,” said 
Miss Jane. She smiled as there came to her 
mind a scene she had frequently witnessed. 
“ If yon wish very hot water to scald dishes 
use it in such a way that the water drains 
away and makes it unnecessary to dip the 
hands into it. Very hot and very cold 
water is bad for the hands. The best house¬ 
keeping in the world does not demand either 
for the hands. 

“ Several articles are necessary on the 
toilet table. A bottle of peroxide of hydro¬ 
gen,— you girls who have studied chemistry 
know that the bottle must be kept corked 
and in the dark, for peroxide of hydrogen is 
made up of two parts of hydrogen and two 
of oxygen. 

“H 2 0 2 is the way the chemists express 
it, but if exposed to the air some oxygen 


218 THE GIRL BEAUTIFUL 


is given off and it becomes two parts of 
hydrogen and one of oxygen, or H 2 0, which 
is water. So yonr uncorked bottle of perox¬ 
ide will become a bottle of water. 

“ There should also be a jar of cold cream 
on the toilet table; some orange sticks and 
some cotton. 

“ Each night the hands should be washed 
with warm water and soap, and the soap 
carefully rinsed off. Then they must be 
dried thoroughly. This is true of the hands 
at all times. Hands on which moisture 
clings soon chap and become rough when ex¬ 
posed to cold air or wind. 

“ Clean under the nails with cotton 
wrapped on the orange-stick, and dipped 
into peroxide. If the cuticle beneath the 
nails is rough, fill under the nail with cold 
cream or any good soothing oil, and let it 
remain until morning. After the hands are 
thoroughly dry, rub on cold cream until the 
skin is relaxed and soft. 

“ Then with the curved end of the orange 
stick push back the cuticle which is inclined 
to grow at the base of the nail. The free 
cuticle gives a better shaped finger. A per- 


THE GIRL BEAUTIFUL 219 


feet nail will always show a little half moon 
of white at the base. 

“ I met a woman yesterday whose nails 
were extremely pointed and extended be¬ 
yond her fingers. Do yon consider that 
good taste, Miss Jane? ” asked Ruth. 

“My dear girl,” responded Miss Jane, 
“ surely you have grasped the idea that good 
taste and innate refinement never has pecu¬ 
liarities or fads. If that woman’s hands 
had been in ‘ good taste ’ you would not have 
asked the question.” 

Miss Jane moved to the end of the porch 
and sat down on the big wicker chair. 

“ What particular truth will you give us as 
a parting word, Miss Jane?” asked Bertha. 

“ This: true beauty comes from within 
and works outward. The activity of the 
mind expresses itself in our movements; 
the uprightness of the mind finds expression 
in our courage, and the idealism and the 
purity of the mind shows in the face and 
eyes. Every thought leaves a mark on the 
physical girl. You are what you think, 
what you believe.” 

“ And you believe that it is a girl’s duty to 
be beautiful? ” 


220 THE GIRL BEAUTIFUL 


“ To be fine-looking, rather. To be really 
fine in appearance, a girl must be active in 
mind and body,— clean, wholesome, ener¬ 
getic and self-controlled.” 

Silence fell. After a few minutes the 
girls, one by one, went their way. 

There were a score or more of them. 
Some were strong enough in will and stead¬ 
fast enough in purpose to fulfill that which 
they set out to do; one or two were weak. 
They would keep to a purpose only when 
some one was there to sustain them. These 
few fell back into their old ways — the way 
of the least resistance, and so they never 
could claim their inheritance; but the others 
achieved their ideals. Each girl became the 
Princess Beautiful, beautiful from the heart 
outward. 

This is not a fairy tale, nor a story woven 
by the imagination. It has its foundation 
in psychology. It is founded on truth and 
will work out as exactly as a mathematical 
problem. 


3 4 7 7 5 























































V 
































